AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    MEMS and NEMS Thursday Sessions
       Session MN+BI-ThM

Invited Paper MN+BI-ThM1
Living Micromachines

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 8:00 am, Room 102B

Session: ‘Fantastic Voyage’ – the New Micro/Nano/Bio Systems Frontiers
Presenter: M. Taher Saif, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Authors: M.T. Saif, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
B. Williams, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
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Industrial revolution of the 19th century marked the onset of the era of machines that transformed societies. Late 20tthe century marked the beginning of miniaturization resulting in micro-nano electronics and MEMS/NEMS. This revolution connected every individual with all the others in the planet. However, all of these machines are non-living, and they do not have inherent intelligence. On the other hand, since the discovery of genes, there is a considerable body of knowledge on engineering living cells. It is thus appropriate to envision biohybrid micro machines that are made from microfabricated scaffolds and living cells. These machines have the potential of unprecedented capabilities, as they would carry the footprints of millions of years of evolution. These machines may emerge from an interaction between the living cells and the micro-nano scaffolds. Thus, they might be the unique products of both the bottom-up and top-down methods. In this talk we will present such an elementary micro machine consisting of a soft slender string and rat cardiomyocytes. The string is made from PDMS by filling a microfabricated channel using capillary draw. Cells are cultured on one region of the string. These cells interact with the string as well as with each other, and beat in synchrony as a single actuator. This living actuator bends the string, and a bending wave propagates from the actuator site towards the end, as a bending of a sperm. This artificial machine thus swims in fluids as the engineered living swimmer. These swimmers might be used in vivo for autonomous intelligent drug delivery.