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Published on: May 9, 2017
Biohybrid robotics with living cell actuation
Lingyu Sun1, Yunru Yu2, Zhuoyue Chen2
1Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, 210008 Nanjing, China. lingyunsun@nju.edu.cn and Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China and Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325001, China. fye@iphy.ac.cn and State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, China. yjzhao@seu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
As simulators of organisms in Nature, soft robots have been developed over the past few decades. In particular, biohybrid robots constructed by integrating living cells with soft materials demonstrate the unique advantage of simulating the construction and functions of human tissues or organs, thus attracting extensive attention and research interest. Here, we present up-to-date studies concerning biohybrid robots with various biological actuators such as contractile cells and microorganisms. After presenting the basic components including biological components and synthetic materials, the controlling methods and locomotion modalities of biohybrid robots are clarified and summarized. We then focus on the applications, especially the biomedical applications, of the biohybrid robots including drug delivery, bioimaging, and tissue engineering. The challenges and prospects for the future development of biohybrid robots are also presented.
