For the millions of people who flinch at cold water on their teeth, the usual fix is a dab of toothpaste on the surface. A Bengaluru startup wants to send an army of tiny robots deep inside the tooth instead — and it is about to try them in human patients.
Theranautilus, a deep-tech company spun out of research at the Indian Institute of Science, is preparing human trials of its magnetically controlled nanorobots for dental treatment. The company won the Top Innovator award at The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 for the technology, and told ET it plans to begin first-in-human trials in Bengaluru in November–December with about 30 patients, subject to permission from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
Four hundred nanometres, steered by a magnet
The company was founded in 2020 by Ambarish Ghosh, Peddi Shanmukh Srinivas — himself a dental surgeon — and Debayan Dasgupta, but the research behind it began in Ghosh’s IISc lab back in 2007. The core platform is a swarm of helical nanorobots made of silicon dioxide and coated with iron, each roughly 300 to 400 nanometres across — about a thousand times thinner than a human hair.
The bots are suspended in a biocompatible fluid and placed at the treatment site; a low-intensity rotating magnetic field makes them corkscrew through dentinal tubules — microscopic channels inside the tooth — to depths of around 2,000 micrometres. At the target they can be remotely triggered: for root-canal disinfection, localised magnetic heating kills hardy bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis without damaging surrounding healthy tissue, the team reported in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. The bots can then be guided back out of the tooth.
CalBots: sealing sensitive teeth from the inside
The lead product, called CalBot, targets dentin hypersensitivity — the stab of pain from enamel loss or receding gums. Instead of coating the tooth surface, CalBots carry a calcium-silicate-based bioceramic cement deep into the tubules and form a durable, tooth-like mineral plug that blocks the pathways carrying the sensation to the nerve, according to research published in Advanced Science in 2025. Toxicity studies in mice found no adverse effects. The company envisages the treatment as a ten-minute procedure that lasts far longer than surface-only desensitisers.
Trials by year-end, licensing as the business
The company says it has completed preclinical studies in mice and will start with around 30 patients before moving to a 300-patient multicentric trial. It expects its oral-health solution to reach commercialisation within about two years. Rather than manufacturing every eventual treatment itself, Theranautilus plans to license the nanorobotics platform to pharmaceutical and medical-device companies. It has raised about &rupee;65 crore, including equity-free grants, from investors including pi Ventures, Pravega Ventures and Golden Sparrow.
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The dental application is the beachhead for a wider roadmap: targeted oncology in the brain and peritoneal cavity, targeted drug delivery, ophthalmology and neuromodulation — with the company targeting oncology nanorobot trials around 2028.
The “swallowed surgeon”, inching closer
The recognition stack is unusually deep for a 2020 startup: Forbes Asia 100 to Watch 2026, the Tata Transformation Prize for Healthcare, the IADR Innovation in Oral Care Award, a Presidential National Award for innovation and entrepreneurship, and selection as one of India’s Top 10 innovative startups showcased before Prime Minister Narendra Modi — plus, recently, a live demonstration of its nanorobotic swarms for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his visit to IISc. The ET Startup Awards jury, weighing cutting-edge promise against commercial traction, singled out the peer-reviewed backing and the founders’ patience: nearly two decades from lab to the clinic’s doorstep.
One honest caveat: the trial dates, the two-year commercialisation timeline and the funding figure are the company’s own reports as quoted in press coverage; human trials have not begun at the time of writing, and CDSCO clearance is still pending. But as an engineering story — two decades of fundamental research at IISc turned into magnetically steered machines that swim into teeth — Theranautilus is exactly the kind of work this showcase exists to feature.
