“Living” cell sheets or bioelectronic chips have great potentials to improve the quality of diagnostics and therapies. However, handling these thin and delicate materials remains a grand challenge because the external force applied for gripping and releasing can easily deform or damage the materials. This study presents a soft manipulator that can manipulate and transport cell/tissue sheets and ultrathin wearable biosensing devices seamlessly by recapitulating how a cephalopod’s suction cup works. The soft manipulator consists of an ultrafast thermo-responsive, microchanneled hydrogel layer with tissue-like softness and an electric heater layer. The electric current to the manipulator drives microchannels of the gel to shrink/expand and results in a pressure change through the microchannels. The manipulator can lift/detach an object within 10 s and can be used repeatedly over 50 times. This soft manipulator would be highly useful for safe and reliable assembly and implantation of therapeutic cell/tissue sheets and biosensing devices.
Details
Title
Electrothermal soft manipulator enabling safe transport and handling of thin cell/tissue sheets and bioelectronic devices
Data availability statement
All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.
Funding Information
National Science Foundationvv, STC-EBICS Grant, CBET-0939511 National Science Foundation, STC-EBICS Grant, CBET-1932192 National Science Foundation, 1554249 National Institutes of Health, 1R21 HL109192 National Institutes of Health, K08 EY024339 National Institutes of Health, R01EY029409 National Institutes of Health, P30 EY001792 U.S. Department of Defense, W81XWH-17-1-0122 Korea Institute of Science and Technology-Europe Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, WPI-I2CNER National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 1R21EB026099-01A1 Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development, I01BX004080
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