Tiny swimmers are on a mission to become robots

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Smart Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart has developed a small biological swimmer covered with magnetic materials, whose ability to swim is not largely affected by paint. The team is from the MPIS IS Department Published Their work in the magazine topic.

In nature, small algae with a ten microscopic microscopic cell is a wonderful swimmer, buried from their whip resembles the whip in the foreground. However, it was not clear what would happen if scientists covered algae with a thin layer of natural polymer chitosan (for good adhesion) mixed with magnetic nanoparticles. Is the small swimmer still able to find a way through narrow spaces – if this is not difficult enough – through a sticky liquid with a similar density of the snake?

Scientists found that partial swimmers based on green algae were almost affected by the additional pregnancy. Through their whip, which performs the chest movement, algae presented itself forward as a quick bullet. Despite the paint, maintain the swimming speed after magnetic, which indicates the average speed of swimming 115 micrometers per second (about 12 length of the body per second). Compared: The Olympic swimmer, such as Michael Phelps, can reach a speed of 1.4 body lengths per second. Note that algae is just a cell without legs and feet.

Bergul Akolbglu and Fatima prevailed in Al-Tassi, who participated in the leadership of the study, are scientists from the MPI-Iis Department. A few years ago, they achieved how Swimmers based on bacteria Magnetic control can be in useful spaces for drug delivery applications. Now they turned their attention to microscopic algae. Their goal was to implement the surface of mono -cell organisms with magnetic materials so that they could be directed in any desired direction – converting microega into microbot.

Cell paint took only a few minutes, where – at the end – out of ten algae, successfully covered with magnetic nanoparticles. For the first time, the team tested its vital robot for swimming in a thin liquid like water. Using external magnetic fields, they managed to control the direction that swam microbial algae.

Then the researchers directed their robot along the 3D printed cylinders, creating a very confined environment as the largest dimension was three times the size of the small algae. To find out if the guidance is successful, the team created two different systems: one with magnetic coils and one with permanent magnets around the microscope. They created a unified magnetic field and changed its direction again and again.

“We have found that microscopic biocybrids move between three -dimensional printed micro -ducts in three ways: retreat, transit, and magnetic transit. Without magnetic instructions, algae often stumbles in fat, avoiding borders, says the common component, Akolut.

“Magnetic instructions helped compatible with the direction of the field, indicating real potential to move in confined spaces – such as giving them a small GPS.”

In the next step, the team increased the liquid wife and sent Microbots through narrow channels again.

“We wanted to test how our swimmers perform in something similar to mucus. We found that the viscosity affects how the micro -biomed swimming. The upper viscosity slows them and changes the way they swim forward. Environments,” adds with the tassi.

“Our vision is to use Microbots in very complex and small environments, such as those in our tissues. The results we find open their doors to applications such as the connection of targeted medications, and provide a vital compatible solution to medical treatments with exciting capabilities of future innovations in Biomedicine.”