Endoscopy-assisted magnetic navigation of biohybrid soft microrobots with rapid endoluminal delivery and imaging

Abstract

High-precision delivery of microrobots at the whole-body scale is of considerable importance for efforts toward targeted therapeutic intervention. However, vision-based control of microrobots, to deep and narrow spaces inside the body, remains a challenge. Here, we report a soft and resilient magnetic cell microrobot with high biocompatibility that can interface with the human body and adapt to the complex surroundings while navigating inside the body. We achieve time-efficient delivery of soft microrobots using an integrated platform called endoscopy-assisted magnetic actuation with dual imaging system (EMADIS). EMADIS enables rapid deployment across multiple organ/tissue barriers at the whole-body scale and high-precision delivery of soft and biohybrid microrobots in real time to tiny regions with depth up to meter scale through natural orifice, which are commonly inaccessible and even invisible by conventional endoscope and medical robots. The precise delivery of magnetic stem cell spheroid microrobots (MSCSMs) by the EMADIS transesophageal into the bile duct with a total distance of about 100 centimeters can be completed within 8 minutes. The integration strategy offers a full clinical imaging technique–based therapeutic/intervention system, which broadens the accessibility of hitherto hard-to-access regions, by means of soft microrobots.

Tethered and Untethered 3D Microactuators Fabricated by Two-Photon Polymerization: A Review

“…For turning these microactuators into realistic applications, more effective, wireless, and milder stimuli should be further developed [158]. Considering that one important application of outfield driven microactuators is drug delivery in medical field [159], we think that magnetic and ultrasound driving will be the focus of research [160][161][162]. Moreover, electric driving and the multi-field coupling method are promising future directions.…”

“…The scaling issue, which includes not only the miniaturization of the electromagnetic control system, but also the accuracy of the magnetic control, should be addressed [165][166][167]. Third, an imaging system that can prepare feedback on the position and state of the microactuators is a must, and it should preferably be integrated into a miniaturized system, especially considering those tasks performed in vivo [159,[168][169][170][171].…”

Fabrication of bioinspired edible liquid marble with phase transition and tunable water barrier property

“…The stability of LM can be related to particle size distribution, surface energy and external conditions [9][10][11]. Moreover, the LM could be further processed through gravity [12], mechanical force [13,14], magnetic manipulation [8,[15][16][17] and light-driven locomotion [18,19]. However, the low-surface-energy materials and surfactant in the air-water interface used for the LMs to encapsulate liquid have been mainly perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) [20].…”

Powering and Fabrication of Small-Scale Robotics Systems

“…While research in small-scale robotics is a relatively young area of research, in the past few years, efforts have been increasingly moving from fundamental studies to practical applications. This becomes especially apparent in the area of biomedical micro-and nanorobotics, where we have recently seen considerable research of these devices in in vivo models [12][13][14][15][16]. The swift progress in micro-and nanorobotics during the last two decades has been chiefly catalyzed by developments in material science and micro-and nanofabrication.…”