Nader Jalili, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern University, is working to create a controlled nanorobot that will be capable of performing non-invasive cancer surgery at sub-nanometer or nanometer resolution, with a degree of precision not possible through existing surgical procedures.

The nanorobots could also be used to take minute skin samples for pathological testing as well as for diagnostic purposes, or to inject medicine or other fluids very precisely into a patient’s body in order to destroy a tumor.