3D printed protein-based robotic structures actuated by molecular motor assemblies

Jia, Haiyang; Flommersfeld, Johannes; Heymann, Michaël; Vogel, Sven; Franquelim, Henri G.; Brückner, David B.; Eto, Hiromune; Broedersz, Chase P.; Schwille, Petra

doi:10.1038/s41563-022-01258-6

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Inspired by the special morphology of the contact elements from pollen grains, the MPH robots were generated using twophoton polymerization-based 3D microprinting. [58][59][60] As shown in Figure 1a, the MPH robot developed here consisted of three main components/layers: inner cargo carrier sphere, inner pollen grain-inspired spike structure, and outer shell. In order to fabricate the robot with such three layers (Figure 1b), pNIPAM-AAc was first printed to form an inner cargo carrier sphere structure that takes part in on-demand cargo delivery based on pH stimulus.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional 3D‐Printed Pollen Grain‐Inspired Hydrogel Microrobots for On‐Demand Anchoring and Cargo Delivery

et al. 2023

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development and implementation of such mobile medical microrobots, including fabrication of soft robotic microdevices, [11,12] synthesis of biocompatible or responsive (adaptive) materials, [13][14][15] and strategies for locomotion inside the body. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] A myriad of remotely controlled medical microrobots has been proposed to enable shape change, multifunctionality, and reconfiguration in response to different stimuli, such as magnetic fields, [23][24][25][26][27] temperature, [28,29] chemical, [30,31] light, [32] and ultrasound, [33,34] for diverse medical applications, such as target drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and remote sensing. [35,36] However, microrobot interaction with biological tissues, complex biofluidic environments, and overlap of multiple stimuli are major challenges toward their future medical applications. [37] The operation of the untethered microrobots is limited in the human body, which is composed of complex physiological environments with a myriad of stimuli, which might trigger non-desired actuation with non-desired function. [38,39] Without decoupled multifunctionality (multifunctional structures), multi-input stimuli of the robot's responsive structures overlap each other, resulting in a partial loss of substantial functional capabilities. [40] In order to avoid the interrupted actuation, decoupling the multiple stimuli inputs is crucial by making each stimulus respond for a single function only. In addition to decoupling multifunctionality, achieving controllable attachment to soft biological tissues is essential for many target implementations, such as collecting bio-signals, applying electrical signals to nerves, and delivering drugs at targeted locations for given durations. [41][42][43][44] However, current designs of micro-scale robots have put more weight on steering and locomotion, so they possess relatively simple surface morphology and lack certain functions, such as tissue attachment ability. [45,46] Inspired by nature, there has been a wide range of biological materials with a variety of morphological structures, which have given us possible solutions to numerous engineering challenges. [47][48][49][50] Among them, pollen grain is emerging as an alternative to adhesive structures for targeted drug delivery applications due to their unique nanospike-like morphology and large inner cavity structure. [51][52][53] Despite the development of pollen graininspired material applications, a majority of the suggested structures have been made from natural pollen grain composed While a majority of wireless microrobots have shown multi-responsiveness to implement complex biomedical functions, their functional executions are strongly dependent on the range of stimulus inputs, which curtails their functional diversity. Furthermore, their responsive functions are coupled to each other, which results in the overlap of the task operations. Here, a 3D-printed multifunctional microrobot inspired by pollen grains with three hydrogel components is demonstrated...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional 3D‐Printed Pollen Grain‐Inspired Hydrogel Microrobots for On‐Demand Anchoring and Cargo Delivery

et al. 2023

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“…[1] Actomyosin also largely shrinks and precipitates by applying adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in vitro; that phenomenon is called superprecipitate. [8][9][10] The discovery of the superprecipitate has made the higher expectation for artificially reconstructing actomyosin-based muscles, including robotics, [11][12][13][14] biosensors, [15,16] computing, [17] and other devices. [18,19] To perform physical activities using artificially reconstructed muscles, multi-scale hierarchical structures are highly required because retain of the actomyosin and efficient transmission of the molecular-scale motion of actomyosin to macroscale actuation is an important aspect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous researchers have developed methods to artificially mimic the functions of biological muscle structures in order to retain actomyosin structure and force transmission. For example, using chemical cross-linking of myosin molecules to scale up the artificial muscles, [20][21][22] binding actin molecules to an object via proteins to transmit the tensile force, [12] and the synthetic proteins to bind the motor proteins [14,23] have been proposed. However, a considerable gap exists between the components of artificial and biological muscles, resulting in a significant obstacle to further scale-up and force transfer through macroscale structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroscale Collagen‐Actomyosin Hybrid Actuator Built from Bioderived Materials

Yoshida,

Kohno,

Hiratsuka

et al. 2023

Adv Funct Materials

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Biological muscles mainly consist of motor proteins that play essential roles and have a hierarchical structure covered with collagen that can transmit the tension to bones via tendons. The artificial reconstruction of motor proteins is highly expected from the viewpoint of engineering and biology. Although artificial muscles have been developed via synthetic and biological molecular motors, there is a considerable gap between the components of artificial and biological muscles, resulting in a significant obstacle to further scale‐up and force transfer through macroscale structures. To overcome these obstacles via bioderived biomolecules, this study proposes a collagen‐actomyosin hybrid soft actuator inspired by the structure of biological muscles. Collagen gel entrapping actomyosin can play roles in maintaining the actuator's shape and transmitting the tensile force. The generated forces reach the micro‐newton range, enabling the actuation of millimeter‐scale mechanical components. These properties may be helpful for the fabrication of soft robotic systems with advanced functionalities.

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“…Long-range structural order is rare in nanoscale biological systems, and the presence of a lattice may allow microtubules and actin filaments to host interesting photophysical interactions. Microtubules and actin filaments are mechanically rigid − and have lifetimes that can be tuned through biochemical agents (varying from minutes to hours; this feature has enabled them to be harnessed within a variety of transport-based nanodevices ,,− ), raising interest in electronic information storage roles inside the cell. − However, the photophysical properties of these protein polymers are still not well understood.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Although the framework to study IR light exposure is well established at the molecular scale, mechanisms by which these interactions manifest at the cellular and tissue scales are unclear. A thorough understanding of the precise pathways by which IR light influences the cell is crucial because of its increasing use in therapeutic applications. − . − …”

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confidence: 99%