Emerging Roles of Microrobots for Enhancing the Sensitivity of Biosensors

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Portable biosensors are crucial for point-of-care testing (POCT) in diagnostics and health monitoring.
• Current biosensors face limitations in sensitivity, size, and intelligence.
• Microrobots offer unique advantages for enhancing biosensor performance due to their controlled locomotion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the integration of microrobots with portable biosensors.
• To highlight how microrobots improve biosensor sensitivity and functionality.
• To discuss future trends in microrobot-assisted biosensing.

Main Methods:

• Review of five types of portable biosensors integrated with microrobots.
• Analysis of microrobot roles in enhancing detection signals (fluorescence intensity, SERS).
• Examination of locomotion-based detection and indirect detection via surface functionalization (electrochemical methods).

Main Results:

• Microrobots enhance detection signals through active enrichment in fluorescence and SERS.
• Microrobot motion state can indicate the presence and quantity of analytes.
• Surface-functionalized microrobots enable indirect detection via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and current measurements.

Conclusions:

• Microrobots significantly enhance the detection performance of portable biosensors.
• Active locomotion of microrobots is key to improving sensitivity and enabling new detection strategies.
• Microrobots represent a promising future for advanced, intelligent biosensing systems.