The Role of Insects in Medical Engineering and Bionics: Towards Entomomedical Engineering

Abstract

Insects are important agents in ecosystems. Their diverseness and developed coping mechanisms also make them interesting for direct application and as a source of inspiration in medical engineering. We summarized the main contribution of insects in biomedical applications. Medical centers in North America, and Europe use fly larvae for maggot therapy to remove necrotic tissue, decrease infection risk, and improve wound healing. Ant mandibles are used as a suturing technique by African tribes and as sources of inspiration for surgical clamps. Both the mosquito fascicle and the wasp ovipositor are sources of inspiration for the design of medical needles. Herein, a new research field called "entomomedical engineering," is proposed. We define entomomedical engineering as the branch of engineering that uses insects either directly or as a source of inspiration to design and develop medical treatments or instruments. In addition, we want to emphasize the importance of preserving insects because of their function in the ecosystem, medicine, and medical engineering.

Progresses of animal robots: A historical review and perspectiveness

“…For instance, the structure and function mimic is inspired from some specific insect/invertebrate that could be used for other purposes and for potential facilitations of the human society ( Romano et al., 2022 ). Moreover, some insects themselves or insect robots could also be possibly used in medicine to cure specific and obstinate diseases, similar to using the unique mechanism of adenoviruses to cross the blood–brain barrier and treat brain diseases ( Bloemberg et al., 2021 ). Currently available biomimetic and bioinspired robotic technologies can accurately imitate the appearance structure and some basic locomotion patterns of target species.…”