Abstract
This paper presents the design, fabrication, and operation of a soft robotic compression device that is remotely powered by laser illumination. We combined the rapid and wireless response of hybrid nanomaterials with state-of-the-art microengineering techniques to develop machinery that can apply physiologically relevant mechanical loading. The passive hydrogel structures that constitute the compliant skeleton of the machines were fabricated using single-step in situ polymerization process and directly incorporated around the actuators without further assembly steps. Experimentally validated computational models guided the design of the compression mechanism. We incorporated a cantilever beam to the prototype for life-time monitoring of mechanical properties of cell clusters on optical microscopes. The mechanical and biochemical compatibility of the chosen materials with living cells together with the on-site manufacturing process enable seamless interfacing of soft robotic devices with biological specimen.
Highlights
Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) culture techniques revolutionized the biomimicry of engineered mammalian tissues
The machines were driven by microscale optomechanical actuators that were fabricated using a templateassisted self-assembly process from nanoscale optomechanical actuators
The nanoscale optomechanical actuators (nOMAs) consist of gold nanorods encapsulated within a thermoresponsive polymer, polyN-isopropylmethacrylamide
Summary
Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) culture techniques revolutionized the biomimicry of engineered mammalian tissues. These models enable testing of novel therapeutic agents on human tissues, circumventing animal trials, and facilitate the discovery of fundamental biological principles (Yamada and Cukierman, 2007; Deglincerti et al, 2016; Dutta et al, 2017; Low et al, 2020). Our understanding of cell mechanics during homeostasis and disease has been garnered from techniques that work on monolayers (Polacheck and Chen, 2016) These studies have shown that cellular state depends on sensing and transduction of mechanical signals (i.e., mechanotransduction), which involve proteins and associated pathways generating intracellular signaling that give rise to transcriptional programming and changes in cell phenotype (Jaalouk and Lammerding, 2009). Lack of tools hinder the development of the field because applying the engineering methods that are optimized for planar substrates to 3D biological samples poses major challenges
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