Magnetically Aligned Nanorods in Alginate Capsules (MANiACs): Soft Matter Tumbling Robots for Manipulation and Drug Delivery

Lamar O Mair; Sagar Chowdhury; Genaro A Paredes-Juarez; Maria Guix; Chenghao Bi; Benjamin Johnson; Bradley W English; Sahar Jafari; James Baker-McKee; Jamelle Watson-Daniels; Olivia Hale; Pavel Stepanov; Danica Sun; Zachary Baker; Chad Ropp; Shailesh B Raval; Dian R Arifin; Jeff W M Bulte; Irving N Weinberg; Benjamin A Evans; David J Cappelleri

doi:10.3390/mi10040230

Magnetically Aligned Nanorods in Alginate Capsules (MANiACs): Soft Matter Tumbling Robots for Manipulation and Drug Delivery

Micromachines (Basel). 2019 Mar 31;10(4):230. doi: 10.3390/mi10040230.

Authors

Lamar O Mair¹, Sagar Chowdhury^{2

3}, Genaro A Paredes-Juarez^{4

5}, Maria Guix⁶, Chenghao Bi⁷, Benjamin Johnson⁸, Bradley W English⁹, Sahar Jafari¹⁰, James Baker-McKee¹¹, Jamelle Watson-Daniels¹², Olivia Hale¹³, Pavel Stepanov¹⁴, Danica Sun¹⁵, Zachary Baker¹⁶, Chad Ropp¹⁷, Shailesh B Raval¹⁸, Dian R Arifin^{19

20}, Jeff W M Bulte^{21

22

23

24

25}, Irving N Weinberg²⁶, Benjamin A Evans²⁷, David J Cappelleri²⁸

Affiliations

¹ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. lamar.mair@gmail.com.
² Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. sagar353@gmail.com.
³ Multi-Scale Robotics and Automation Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. sagar353@gmail.com.
⁴ Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology, Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. genaro.paredes@gmail.com.
⁵ Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. genaro.paredes@gmail.com.
⁶ Multi-Scale Robotics and Automation Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. maria.guix@gmail.com.
⁷ Multi-Scale Robotics and Automation Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. bi10@purdue.edu.
⁸ Multi-Scale Robotics and Automation Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. john1360@purdue.edu.
⁹ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. brad.w.english@gmail.com.
¹⁰ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. sahar.jafari2011@gmail.com.
¹¹ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. jbakermckee@gmail.com.
¹² Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. jamelle.wd@gmail.com.
¹³ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. oliviahale333@gmail.com.
¹⁴ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. pavstepan@gmail.com.
¹⁵ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. danica.sun5@gmail.com.
¹⁶ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. zgbaker54@gmail.com.
¹⁷ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. chadropp@gmail.com.
¹⁸ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. rshailesh8504@gmail.com.
¹⁹ Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology, Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. darifin@mri.jhu.edu.
²⁰ Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. darifin@mri.jhu.edu.
²¹ Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology, Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jwmbulte@mri.jhu.edu.
²² Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jwmbulte@mri.jhu.edu.
²³ Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jwmbulte@mri.jhu.edu.
²⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jwmbulte@mri.jhu.edu.
²⁵ Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, The Johns Hopkins School of Engineering, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. jwmbulte@mri.jhu.edu.
²⁶ Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. inweinberg@gmail.com.
²⁷ Department of Physics, Elon University, Elon, NC 27244, USA. bevans7@elon.edu.
²⁸ Multi-Scale Robotics and Automation Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. dcappell@purdue.edu.

Abstract

Soft, untethered microrobots composed of biocompatible materials for completing micromanipulation and drug delivery tasks in lab-on-a-chip and medical scenarios are currently being developed. Alginate holds significant potential in medical microrobotics due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and drug encapsulation capabilities. Here, we describe the synthesis of MANiACs-Magnetically Aligned Nanorods in Alginate Capsules-for use as untethered microrobotic surface tumblers, demonstrating magnetically guided lateral tumbling via rotating magnetic fields. MANiAC translation is demonstrated on tissue surfaces as well as inclined slopes. These alginate microrobots are capable of manipulating objects over millimeter-scale distances. Finally, we demonstrate payload release capabilities of MANiACs during translational tumbling motion.

Keywords: alginate capsules; magnetic microrobots; magnetic nanorods; micromanipulation; rotating magnetic fields; surface walkers; tumbling robots.

Abstract

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