Spermatozoa as Functional Components of Robotic Microswimmers

Veronika Magdanz; Mariana Medina-Sánchez; Lukas Schwarz; Haifeng Xu; Jens Elgeti; Oliver G Schmidt

doi:10.1002/adma.201606301

Spermatozoa as Functional Components of Robotic Microswimmers

Adv Mater. 2017 Jun;29(24). doi: 10.1002/adma.201606301. Epub 2017 Mar 21.

Authors

Veronika Magdanz¹, Mariana Medina-Sánchez¹, Lukas Schwarz¹, Haifeng Xu¹, Jens Elgeti², Oliver G Schmidt^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, IFW Dresden e.V., Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069, Dresden, Germany.
² Theoretical Soft Matter and Biophysics, Institute of Complex Systems (ICS-2), 52425, Jülich, Germany.
³ Chemnitz University of Technology, Reichenhainer Str. 70, 09107, Chemnitz, Germany.
⁴ Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, Dresden University of Technology, Würzburger Str. 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany.

PMID: 28323360
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201606301

Abstract

In recent years, the combination of synthetic micro- and nanomaterials with spermatozoa as functional components has led to the development of tubular and helical spermbots - microrobotic devices with potential applications in the biomedical and nanotechnological field. Here, the initial advances in this field are discussed and the use of spermatozoa as functional parts in microdevices elaborated. Besides the potential uses of these hybrid robotic microswimmers, the obstacles along the way are discussed, with suggestions for solutions of the encountered challenges also given.

Keywords: microhelixes; microrobotics; microswimmers; microtubes; spermatozoa.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Male
Nanostructures
Nanotechnology
Robotics
Spermatozoa*