Development of a Sperm‐Flagella Driven Micro‐Bio‐Robot

Magdanz, Veronika; Sánchez, Samuel; Schmidt, Oliver G.

doi:10.1002/adma.201302544

Cited by 378 publications

(374 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Moreover, the similarities in fluid physics of swimmers across different species,46 from bacteria to parasites, make these findings broadly applicable to other motile microorganisms. In fact, many such active swimmers across diverse biological systems have been an inspiration for the design of artificial micrometer‐scale flagellar systems including biohybrid microrobots,47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and we also envision broad applications of our findings in areas such as medical diagnosis,53 biosensing,54 and targeted drug delivery 55…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Guidance and Self‐Sorting of Active Swimmers: 3D Periodic Arrays Increase Persistence Length of Human Sperm Selecting for the Fittest

et al. 2017

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Male infertility is a reproductive disease, and existing clinical solutions for this condition often involve long and cumbersome sperm sorting methods, including preprocessing and centrifugation‐based steps. These methods also fall short when sorting for sperm free of reactive oxygen species, DNA damage, and epigenetic aberrations. Although several microfluidic platforms exist, they suffer from structural complexities, i.e., pumps or chemoattractants, setting insurmountable barriers to clinical adoption. Inspired by the natural filter‐like capabilities of the female reproductive tract for sperm selection, a model‐driven design, featuring pillar arrays that efficiently and noninvasively isolate highly motile and morphologically normal sperm, with lower epigenetic global methylation, from raw semen, is presented. The Simple Periodic ARray for Trapping And isolatioN (SPARTAN) created here modulates the directional persistence of sperm, increasing the spatial separation between progressive and nonprogressive motile sperm populations within an unprecedentedly short 10 min assay time. With over 99% motility of sorted sperm, a 5‐fold improvement in morphology, 3‐fold increase in nuclear maturity, and 2–4‐fold enhancement in DNA integrity, SPARTAN offers to standardize sperm selection while eliminating operator‐to‐operator variations, centrifugation, and flow. SPARTAN can also be applied in other areas, including conservation ecology, breeding of farm animals, and design of flagellar microrobots for diagnostics.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Guidance and Self‐Sorting of Active Swimmers: 3D Periodic Arrays Increase Persistence Length of Human Sperm Selecting for the Fittest

et al. 2017

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“…a sperm cell, with an externally controllable non-motile part, e.g. a magnetic microtube 10 . In soft matter systems, colloids play an important role as a model system since they provide an ideal environment to compare experiment, computer simulation, and theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of the critical behavior in an active colloidal system with Vicsek-like interactions

Trefz

Siebert

Speck

et al. 2017

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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We study numerically the critical behavior of a modified, active Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures. The colloids are modeled as self-propelled particles with Vicsek-like interactions. This system undergoes phase separation between a colloid-rich and a polymer-rich phase, whereby the phase diagram depends on the strength of the Vicsek-like interactions. Employing a subsystem-block-density distribution analysis, we determine the critical point and make an attempt to estimate the critical exponents. In contrast to the passive model, we find that the critical point is not located on the rectilinear diameter. A first estimate of the critical exponents β and ν is consistent with the underlying 3d-Ising universality class observed for the passive model.

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“…In 2013, a group at the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences in Dresden, Germany, debuted a device that traps bull sperm in magnetic nanotubes and uses the cells for propulsion (5); magnetic fields are used to steer. Last year, the same group (6) unveiled a remote-controlled "spermbot," which can fit on a slow sperm and escort it to an egg as a possible treatment for infertility; in a preprint published on the arXiv in April 2017, they described a similar nanotube sperm helmet that may carry cancer-treating drugs (7).…”

Section: Natural Leaningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical microrobots have potential in surgery, therapy, imaging, and diagnostics

Ornes¹

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Development of a Sperm‐Flagella Driven Micro‐Bio‐Robot

Cited by 378 publications

References 46 publications

Guidance and Self‐Sorting of Active Swimmers: 3D Periodic Arrays Increase Persistence Length of Human Sperm Selecting for the Fittest

Guidance and Self‐Sorting of Active Swimmers: 3D Periodic Arrays Increase Persistence Length of Human Sperm Selecting for the Fittest

Estimation of the critical behavior in an active colloidal system with Vicsek-like interactions

Medical microrobots have potential in surgery, therapy, imaging, and diagnostics

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