Seminar: Microrobots for cell/drug delivery and treatment of vascular diseases, Prof Hongsoo Choi, DIGIST, Korea

Abstract:

Medical microrobots have various possibilities for biomedical applications by transporting cells or drugs to restore damaged tissues or organs. In this presentation, various magnetically actuated microrobots are introduced for precise control by external magnetic fields to achieve their specific goals. First, three-dimensional (3D) laser lithography was used to create complete 3D microrobot structures using various types of photocurable materials. A nickel / titanium bilayer was deposited by sputtering on the microrobots for magnetic activation and biocompatibility. These microrobots demonstrated various drive mechanisms that mimic novel swimming strategies in the small world with precise locomotion. Second, tethered and unpopulated microrobots with wireless magnetic manipulation are also presented for the treatment of vascular diseases such as thrombosis. These robots are in mm scale and will be used in future with a medical imaging system for precise locomotion and registration in a heart phantom and heart of an animal. Our microrobots will be a potential tool in the microrobot field for various biomedical applications.

Bio:

Prof. Hongsoo Choi received Ph.D. in the department of Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University, USA (2007). He is currently a professor in the department of Robotics Engineering at Dague Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea. He is also a co-director of DGIST-ETH Microrobotics Research Center (DEMRC). His research areas are biomedical microrobots for targeted therapeutics, MEMS based devices for biomedical applications, especially, piezoelectric devices such as piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducer (pMUT) and artificial cochlea using piezoelectric sensors.