Recent Progress of Micro/Nanorobots for Cell Delivery and Manipulation

Micro/nanorobots have attracted significant interest in the biomedical field due to their micro/nano scale sizes and autonomously untethered motions. Meanwhile, stem cell-based therapy has emerged as a promising approach to cure previously irreparable degenerative diseases by virtue of the stem cells' differentiation and regeneration. To ensure the efficiency of the stem cell delivery, developing suitable and reliable cell-transport systems is essential. Micro/nanorobots aimed at cell transport have progressed in recent years, which can perform this crucial step of cell delivery accurately and noninvasively during cell-based therapy. Herein, a review of the design and fabrication technologies and actuation mechanisms of cell-transport microrobots is presented. The applications of the micro/nanorobotic cell-manipulation and cell-transport platforms are discussed, as well as the current challenges and the future perspectives in translation of microrobots from research stage to clinical applications.

Automated summary

This article reviews the design, fabrication technologies, and actuation mechanisms of cell-transport microrobots, and discusses their applications, challenges, and future prospects.