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An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

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Multifunctional Micromachines Constructed by Combining Multiple Protein-Based Components with Different Functions.

Hironori Yamazoe¹

¹National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-8-31 Midorigaoka, Ikeda, Osaka 563-8577, Japan.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

|December 11, 2023

Summary

Researchers developed new protein-based micromachines for medicine. Inkjet printing allows adding multiple functions, enabling tasks like drug delivery and cell collection for advanced medical applications.

Keywords:

inkjet printing micromachine micromoter multifunction protein-based materials soft robotics

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Last Updated: Jul 8, 2025

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

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Published on: July 18, 2018

The MultiBac Protein Complex Production Platform at the EMBL

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Published on: August 23, 2012

Area of Science:

Biomedical Engineering
Materials Science
Nanotechnology

Background:

Existing medical micromachines perform limited, specific tasks.
Methodologies for imparting diverse functions to micromachines remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a novel strategy for constructing multifunctional micromachines.
To enable the addition of specific biological functions to micromachines using protein components.

Main Methods:

Utilized inkjet printing to attach protein-based components with specific biological functions to micromachines.
Constructed various proof-of-concept machines by combining multiple functional components.

Main Results:

Demonstrated enzyme-powered self-propulsion and magnetic guidance.
Successfully collected target objects like bilirubin and living cells.
Achieved enzyme-mediated substrate conversion and drug (diapocynin) release.

Conclusions:

The novel construction strategy allows for easy integration of diverse functionalities into micromachines.
Multifunctional, biocompatible protein-based micromachines show significant potential for advanced medical applications.
This approach is expected to impact the development of intelligent machines with multiplex sophisticated functionalities.