This L.A. start-up is building tiny injectable robots to attack tumors

Doctors take a microscopic craft loaded with cancer-killing chemicals, inject it into the human body, and drive it to a malignant tumor to deliver its payload before making a quick exit. For most of the 55 years since "Fantastic Voyage" shrank Raquel Welch and company down to the size of a cell to zap a blood clot out of a scientist's brain, that scenario has been pure science fiction. But Bionaut Labs, a remote-control medical microrobot start-up, intends to be the first company to make it a clinical reality. Backed by $20 million in venture capital funding and building off recent advances in robotics and precision manufacturing, the Culver City company is developing a device the size of a breadcrumb that doctors can insert into the spine or skull and magnetically steer to a target to deliver a precise dose of drugs. The plan is to move to clinical trials by 2023.