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Electrothermal soft manipulator enabling safe transport and handling of thin cell/tissue sheets and bioelectronic devices

  • Byoung Soo Kim
  • , Min Ku Kim
  • , Younghak Cho
  • , Eman E. Hamed
  • , Martha U. Gillette
  • , Hyeongyun Cha
  • , Nenad Miljkovic
  • , Vinay K. Aakalu
  • , Kai Kang
  • , Kyung No Son
  • , Kyle M. Schachtschneider
  • , Lawrence B. Schook
  • , Chenfei Hu
  • , Gabriel Popescu
  • , Yeonsoo Park
  • , William C. Ballance
  • , Seunggun Yu
  • , Sung Gap Im
  • , Jonghwi Lee
  • , Chi Hwan Lee
  • Hyunjoon Kong
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Purdue University
  • Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Kyushu University
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
  • The University of Chicago
  • Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute
  • Chung-Ang University
  • Yonsei University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

“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.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereabc5630
JournalScience Advances
Volume6
Issue number42
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2020

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