Microrobotics and Microorganisms: Biohybrid Autonomous Cellular Robots

Alapan, Yunus; Yaşa, Öncay; Yigit, Berk; Yasa, Immihan Ceren; Erkoc, Pelin; Sitti, Metin

doi:10.1146/annurev-control-053018-023803

Cited by 163 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 141 publications

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“…One plausible solution is to develop biohybrid microrobots that integrate self‐propelling microorganisms with functionalized synthetic nanostructures. The current generation of biohybrid platforms is based primarily on flagellated microorganisms which survive only in delicate living conditions and may not provide sufficient fluid mixing for enhancing decontamination processes. Moreover, while enzymatically powered micropumps have been utilized to generate fluid mixing, they are tailored to operate under specific environmental conditions and with their respective substrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotibot: Use of Rotifers as Self‐Propelling Biohybrid Microcleaners

Soto

Lopez‐Ramirez

Jeerapan

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

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Self-propelled biohybrid microrobots, employing marine rotifers as their engine, named "rotibot," are presented and their practical utility and advantages for environmental remediation are demonstrated. Functionalized microbeads are attached electrostatically within the rotifer mouth and aggregated inside their inner lip. The high fluid flow toward the mouth, generated by the strokes of rotifer cilia bands, forces an extremely efficient transport of the contaminated sample over the active surfaces of the functionalized microbeads. The reactive particles confined around the rotifer's lip are thus exposed to a high flow rate of the pollutant solution, resulting in dramatically accelerated decontamination processes, without external mixing or harmful fuels. Theoretical simulations, modeling the greatly enhanced fluid dynamic associated with such built-in mixing effect, correlate well with the experimental observations. The rotibot thus proves to be an effective, versatile, and robust dynamic microcleaning platform for removing diverse environmental pollutants. Microbeads functionalized with lysozyme and organophosphorus hydrolase enzymes are shown to be extremely useful for enzymatic biodegradation of Escherichia coli and the nerve agent methyl paraoxon, respectively, while ligand (meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid) modified beads are used for removing heavy metal contaminants. Rotifer-based biohybrid microrobots hold considerable promise as self-propelling dynamic pumps for diverse large-scale environmental remediation applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotibot: Use of Rotifers as Self‐Propelling Biohybrid Microcleaners

Soto

Lopez‐Ramirez

Jeerapan

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

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“…Given that, the biochemical output from bacteria can be integrated with electro-chemical [32], mechanical [33] and optical systems [34], biochemical microgravity sensor will be useful to create material-cell hybrid robots [35] for various space medical technologies. Further, combining with an intracellular radiation sensor [23,36] with a microgravity sensor in the same cell may give rise to a potential health hazards monitoring system in space.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthetic biochemical device for sensing microgravity

Mukhopadhyay

Bagh

2020

Preprint

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Biological solutions to human space travel must consider microgravity as an important component, which is unknown by the biochemical worlds on the Earth. Thus, one of the fundamental challenges of space biotechnology is to create engineered biochemical systems to integrate microgravity as a signal within molecular and cellular processes. Here we created the first molecular or biochemical microgravity sensor by creating a synthetic-small-regulatory-RNA based molecular network in E.coli, which sensed microgravity and responded by altering the expression of a target protein. We demonstrated that the design was universal, could work potentially with any promoter and against any target gene. This device was applied to target cell division process and rescue the deformed cell shape by applying microgravity. The work showed for the first time, a way to integrate microgravity as physical signals within biochemical process of a living cell in a human designed way and thus, opens a new direction in space biotechnology, space chemistry and space technology.

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“…The mechanism is similar to that of plants where the amount of water in cells and tissue is varied to invoke bending or twisting. The recent development of biohybrid materials involves the integration of synthetic polymers and other materials with alive phototactic bacteria, algae, or muscle cells 35–37. Chemical engineering is essential for optical robotics, and important design parameters include spectral response, sensitivity and response time.…”

Section: Pros and Cons Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pros and Cons: Magnetic versus Optical Microrobots

2020

Self Cite

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Mobile microrobotics has emerged as a new robotics field within the last decade to create untethered tiny robots that can access and operate in unprecedented, dangerous, or hard‐to‐reach small spaces noninvasively toward disruptive medical, biotechnology, desktop manufacturing, environmental remediation, and other potential applications. Magnetic and optical actuation methods are the most widely used actuation methods in mobile microrobotics currently, in addition to acoustic and biological (cell‐driven) actuation approaches. The pros and cons of these actuation methods are reported here, depending on the given context. They can both enable long‐range, fast, and precise actuation of single or a large number of microrobots in diverse environments. Magnetic actuation has unique potential for medical applications of microrobots inside nontransparent tissues at high penetration depths, while optical actuation is suitable for more biotechnology, lab‐/organ‐on‐a‐chip, and desktop manufacturing types of applications with much less surface penetration depth requirements or with transparent environments. Combining both methods in new robot designs can have a strong potential of combining the pros of both methods. There is still much progress needed in both actuation methods to realize the potential disruptive applications of mobile microrobots in real‐world conditions.

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Microrobotics and Microorganisms: Biohybrid Autonomous Cellular Robots

Cited by 163 publications

References 141 publications

Rotibot: Use of Rotifers as Self‐Propelling Biohybrid Microcleaners

Rotibot: Use of Rotifers as Self‐Propelling Biohybrid Microcleaners

A synthetic biochemical device for sensing microgravity

Pros and Cons: Magnetic versus Optical Microrobots

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