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Respiration cells are a blueprint for an artificial red blood cell made of diamond or sapphire that could hold 200 times more oxygen and carbon dioxide than natural red blood cells. Powered by blood glucose, it has a simple design and could be used medicinally or recreationally by 2020 or 2030. The respiration cell has three design components and is biocompatible. It was designed by Robert Freitas, a nanotechnology researcher at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing.
A respiration cell is an engineering blueprint for a machine that can’t be built with current technology: an artificial red blood cell one micron in diameter. If advances in nanotechnology continue as rapidly as they did in the first decade of the 21st century, we could see respiration cells used medicinally or even recreationally by 2020 or 2030.
The most interesting thing about a breathocyte is its internal pressure: about 1000 atmospheres. The respiration cell would be spherical, the optimal shape for high-pressure vessels, and made of pure diamond or sapphire, ideal engineering materials for durable nanosystems. High pressure is allowed by the robustness of these materials.
At 1000 atmospheres of pressure, respiration cells could contain 200 times more oxygen and carbon dioxide than our natural red blood cells. This could allow a person to hold their breath at the bottom of a swimming pool for four hours or allow someone to run at full speed for at least 15 minutes without stopping to breathe. Such feats are impossible today.
Powered by blood glucose, a respiration cell has a remarkably simple design. All that is needed for its eventual realization is the continued advance of miniaturization in manufacturing, a trend that has been stable for decades and is approaching the atomic scale. What is needed is 3D nanoscale fabrication, a capability foreshadowed by the use of scanning tunneling microscopes to manipulate individual atoms on a surface.
The respiration cell consists of three major design components: rotors to take in oxygen from the lungs and release it into the bloodstream; rotors to collect carbon dioxide from the bloodstream and release it into the lungs; and rotors to draw glucose from the bloodstream to generate energy in a process similar to cellular respiration. Preliminary studies have found that extremely smooth diamond surfaces would be virtually invisible to white blood cells, making the devices biocompatible.
The respiration cells were designed and studied in detail by Robert Freitas, a nanotechnology researcher at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. The paper describing the concept is titled “A mechanical artificial red blood cell:
Exploratory Design in Medical Nanotechnology.” Nanomedical applications such as those envisioned by Freitas could become commonplace in the medium to long-term future for many who live today.
