Yasmin Abukhein, 30, is one of the women in the robotics team studying for a PhD. The student from Jordan is developing capsule endoscopy to detect and prevent colon cancer.

“We are trying to increase the recognition rate. There’s been much interest in this recently as colon is the third most prevalent cancer in the UAE,” she said.

The single-use capsule has a camera and inner shell sensors and will be swallowed. At 11mm x 33mm, it is the size of a commercial pharmaceutical capsule.

“For people at risk, they have to do regular screenings which can be painful and invasive and patients often don’t want to do these,” she said. “This way, you would have more cooperation.”

The camera sends three-dimensional images to the doctors, allowing them to zoom in to the areas of interest.

Where this system differs from others, Ms Abukhein said, is the ability to control and direct the capsule, something the team aims to develop and fine-tune. “In most capsules it takes around 45 to 120 minutes but with this, it will only need to go to the areas of interest, making the diagnosis quicker and easier,” she said. It is also cheaper than colonoscopy, and when mass produced believed to cost about US$500.

However, it is several years off yet, only in the simulation stages, though the team is collaborating with the University of Pisa, which she says also use animals for such tests further down the line. “This tests the concept in real tissue,” she said.

mswan@thenational.ae