Strategies in design of self-propelling hybrid micro/nanobots for bioengineering applications

Biomed Mater. 2023 Oct 3;18(6). doi: 10.1088/1748-605X/acf975.

Abstract

Micro/nanobots are integrated devices developed from engineered nanomaterials that have evolved significantly over the past decades. They can potentially be pre-programmed to operate robustly at numerous hard-to-reach organ/tissues/cellular sites for multiple bioengineering applications such as early disease diagnosis, precision surgeries, targeted drug delivery, cancer therapeutics, bio-imaging, biomolecules isolation, detoxification, bio-sensing, and clearing up clogged arteries with high soaring effectiveness and minimal exhaustion of power. Several techniques have been introduced in recent years to develop programmable, biocompatible, and energy-efficient micro/nanobots. Therefore, the primary focus of most of these techniques is to develop hybrid micro/nanobots that are an optimized combination of purely synthetic or biodegradable bots suitable for the execution of user-defined tasks more precisely and efficiently. Recent progress has been illustrated here as an overview of a few of the achievable construction principles to be used to make biomedical micro/nanobots and explores the pivotal ventures of nanotechnology-moderated development of catalytic autonomous bots. Furthermore, it is also foregrounding their advancement offering an insight into the recent trends and subsequent prospects, opportunities, and challenges involved in the accomplishments of the effective multifarious bioengineering applications.

Keywords: bioengineering; biomedical engineering; biosensing; drug delivery; micromotors; nanomotors.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bioengineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Drug Delivery Systems / methods
  • Nanostructures*
  • Nanotechnology* / methods