Illustration (top) and scanning electron microscopy image (bottom) of biohybrid bacterial microswimmers, which were fabricated by combining genetically engineered E. coli MG1655 and nanoerythrosomes made from red blood cells. A biotin-streptavidin interaction was used to attach nanoerythrosomes to the bacterial membrane.
CREDIT: Image courtesy of the authors
Tiny biohybrid robots on the micrometer scale can swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors or provide other cargo-carrying functions. The natural environmental sensing tendencies of bacteria mean they can navigate toward certain chemicals or be remotely controlled using magnetic or sound signals.
To be successful, these tiny biological robots must consist of materials that can pass clearance through the body’s immune response. They also have to be able to swim quickly through viscous environments and penetrate tissue cells to deliver cargo.
In a paper published this week in APL Bioengineering, from AIP Publishing, researchers fabricated biohybrid bacterial microswimmers by combining a genetically engineered E. coli MG1655 substrain and nanoerythrosomes, small structures made from red blood cells.
Nanoerythrosomes are nanovesicles derived from red blood cells by emptying the cells, keeping the membranes and filtering them down to nanoscale size. These tiny red blood cell carriers attach to the bacterial membrane using the powerful noncovalent biological bond between biotin and streptavidin. This process preserves two important red blood cell membrane proteins: TER119 needed to attach the nanoerythrosomes, and CD47 to prevent macrophage uptake.
The E. coli MG 1655 serves as a bioactuator performing the mechanical work of propelling through the body as a molecular engine using flagellar rotation. The swimming capabilities of the bacteria were assessed using a custom-built 2D object-tracking algorithm and 20 videos taken as raw data to document their performance.
Biohybrid microswimmers with bacteria carrying red blood cell nanoerythrosomes performed at speeds 40% faster than other E. coli-powered microparticles-based biohybrid microswimmers, and the work demonstrated a reduced immune response due to the nanoscale size of the nanoerythrosomes and adjustments to the density of coverage of nanoerythrosomes on the bacterial membrane.
These biohybrid swimmers could deliver drugs faster, due to their swimming speed, and encounter less immune response, due to their composition. The researchers plan to continue their work to further tune the immune clearance of the microrobots and investigate how they might penetrate cells and release their cargo in the tumor microenvironment.
“This work is an important stepping stone in our overarching goal of developing and deploying biohybrid microrobots for therapeutic cargo delivery,” author Metin Sitti said. “If you decrease the size of red blood cells to nanoscale and functionalize the body of the bacteria, you could obtain additional superior properties that will be crucial in the translation of the medical microrobotics to clinics.”
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Personalized microrobots
- Citi Custom Cash Card Review: Low-Maintenance 5% Cash Back
The card earns 5% cash back (up to a spending cap) in your top spending category each billing cycle. Everything else earns an unlimited 1% back. This no-fuss, high-earning cash back card is ideal ...
- Swarms of microrobots remove microplastics and bacteria from water
Researchers from the Future Energy and Innovation Laboratory, the Central European Institute of Technology and the Brno University of Technology have developed microrobots that are able to swarm ...
- How personalized medicine is transforming your health care
As it happened, he is a co-leader of a study at the cutting edge of what’s come to be called precision, or personalized, medicine. The approach, built on advances in gene research and data ...
- Researcher explains why we should care more about converging technologies
Professor Dirk Helbing of ETH Zurich and Austria's Complexity Science Hub expects future digital technologies to penetrate the human body even more in the future. However, he believes that society is ...
- Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine
With personalized medicine, physicians may be able to use genetic profiles to make treatment choices. Aa Aa Aa Personalized medicine is based on using an individual's genetic profile to make the ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Personalized microrobots
[google_news title=”” keyword=”personalized microrobots” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Biohybrid robots
- robot design
How do you approach your robot designs? Maybe, you do it from a ‘oh, I have these cool parts’ position, or from a ‘I want to make a platform on wheels for my experiments’ perspective.
- Robot vacuum buying guide—what you need to know
Robot vacuums have come a long way since their debut more than 20 years ago. In that time these bots have gone from a novelty to a staple household appliance. Some of today's best robot vacuums ...
- HybriBot as a Biodegradable Vector for Reforestation
Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) collaborated with the University of Freiburg to create a biohybrid robot that consists of a flour-based capsule ...
- Biohybrid robot made from flour and oats could act as a biodegradable vector for reforestation
Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) in collaboration with the University of Freiburg have developed a biohybrid robot, which consists of a flour-based ...
- Robots Hacks
That’s not to say that wire is off the table for locksports, though, as this cool lock-picking robot demonstrates. The basics behind [Sparks and Code]’s design are pretty simple. Locks are ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Biohybrid robots
[google_news title=”” keyword=”biohybrid robots” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]