Descripción del proyecto
Microrrobots inspirados en células
Los microrrobots tienen un potencial extraordinario en procedimientos médicos no invasivos y en la administración de fármacos. Sin embargo, sus funcionalidades limitadas y su incapacidad para moverse con eficacia en fluidos y tejidos corporales suponen un escollo para tales aplicaciones. El proyecto CELLOIDS, financiado con fondos europeos, propone derribar dichos obstáculos con el desarrollo de microrrobots innovadores inspirados en células inmunitarias que se mueven naturalmente a través de tejidos corporales cambiando su forma. Estos microrrobots inspirados en células, también denominados «celoides», contendrán partículas autopropulsadas que les permitirán navegar de forma autónoma en entornos similares a tejidos blandos. Las aplicaciones de los celoides abarcarán desde la administración dirigida de fármacos hasta el estudio de la migración de células inmunitarias y cancerosas.
Objetivo
Microscale robotic devices, or microrobots, could someday enable revolutionary non-invasive medical procedures. However, fundamental limitations still hinder the realisation of this vision. Current microrobots have very limited functionalities: they strongly rely on wireless operation by external fields, which impedes the execution of sophisticated movements and tasks. As a consequence, despite their intended medical use, microrobots cannot move effectively in bodily fluids and tissues. This project addresses exactly this challenge: realising self-contained microrobots that autonomously move in complex 3D biological environments (such as soft body tissues).
Our sources of inspiration are biological cells that naturally move through body tissues, such as immune cells. These cells move by continuously changing their shape, a strategy known as ‘amoeboid movement’. Such shape changes are powered by the self-organized flows and stresses of their intracellular filaments and motor proteins. Analogously, we will realise microrobots that each consist of a swarm of active particles: each microrobot will have a liquid body containing self-propelled particles and different sensitive particles; moreover, the particles swarm will be engineered to exhibit desired collective behaviours. These cell-inspired particle-based microrobots, or celloids, will spontaneously adapt their morphology, generate large body-shape changes, sense environmental cues and control signals, and autonomously navigate soft tissue-like environments.
This project will establish a radically new method to design microrobots, and will result in microrobots capable of autonomous navigation of body tissues. The celloids will also constitute a robophysical model for studying the migration of immune and cancer cells, and will enable a number of revolutionary medical procedures, including long-term monitoring and non-invasive interventions in delicate organs (e.g. brain).
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
56127 Pisa
Italia