Wireless Microgrippers Grab Living Cells in ’Biopsy’ Tests

Office of News and Information - Johns Hopkins University - 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 - Baltimore, Maryland 21231 - Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920 In experiments that pave the way for tiny mobile surgical tools activated by heat or chemicals, Johns Hopkins researchers have invented dust-particle-size devices that can be used to grab and remove living cells from hard-to-reach places without the need for electrical wires, tubes or batteries. Instead, the devices are actuated by thermal or biochemical signals. The mass-producible microgrippers each measure approximately one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter. In lab tests, they have been used to perform a biopsy-like procedure on animal tissue placed at the end of a narrow tube. Experiments using the devices were reported in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of Jan. Although the devices will require further refinement before they can be used in humans, David H. Gracias , who supervised the project, said these thermobiochemically responsive, functional micro-tools represent a paradigm shift in engineering. "We've demonstrated tiny inexpensive tools that can be triggered en masse by nontoxic biochemicals," said Gracias, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.