Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Laser Micromachining for Polymer Surface Topography Design
Published on: September 19, 2025
Light force-powered cellular medical micromachines
Dalin Ma1, Xinyu Ren1, Jiaxi Zheng1
1Department of Optoelectronic Engineering, School of Physics and Materials Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
None:
With the synergistic advancement of micro/nanotechnology and intelligent control systems, medical micromachines are emerging as promising alternatives to conventional diagnostic and therapeutic methods, offering enhanced operational precision and minimal invasiveness for precision medicine applications. However, most existing micromachines rely on artificial synthetic materials, which involve complex micro-nano fabrication and raise biosafety concerns regarding immunogenicity and limited long-term therapeutic efficacy in deep tissues. The integration of natural biological cells with programmable optical tweezer has opened new avenues to overcome these limitations, enabling precise behavioral regulation and in situ assembly of cell-based micromachines. This review systematically outlines the design strategies underlying five categories of light force-powered cellular micromachines, including chemotactic bacteria, photosynthetic microalgae, red blood cells (RBCs), immune cells and subcellular structures, and highlights their pioneering applications in targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery and desired immunotherapy. Meanwhile, it also addresses key challenges such as limited tissue penetration depth, phototoxicity management and operation intelligence, while suggesting future directions like adaptive optics-driven swarm control, optomechanobiological coupling and bioprinting-integrated systems. Additionally, the convergence of photonic technology, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence is expected to advance these micromachines into next-generation biomedical platforms for health supervision and disease therapy in vivo.
Related Concept Videos
Power Expended by a Constant Force
Electromotive Force
Power
Inhaled Medications
Intermolecular Forces
Sums of Power

