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Tissue regeneration

A bioadhesive robot to activate muscles

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 149–150 (2023)Cite this article

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Soft actuators composed of a tough bioadhesive/elastomer shell encapsulating a stimuli-responsive metallic spring provide in situ mechanical stimulation of skeletal muscles to promote muscle tissue rehabilitation and prevent atrophy.

Bioadhesives or tissue adhesives have been widely used in clinical medicine as haemostatic agents, wound sealants and adhesives. Conventional bioadhesives often suffer from the limitation of low adhesion toughness and strength, which severely hampers their scope of applications. Now, writing in Nature Materials, Nam et al. report a soft robot that strongly adheres to skeletal muscles through a tough bioadhesive to generate and deliver muscle-contraction-mimicking stimulation with programmed strength and frequency1.

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Fig. 1: Contraction and relaxation of the tough-bioadhesive robot.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Xuanhe Zhao

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Xuanhe Zhao

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  1. Xuanhe Zhao
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Correspondence to Xuanhe Zhao.

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Competing interests

X.Z. has a financial interest in SanaHeal, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the development of medical devices for surgical sealing and repair.

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Zhao, X. A bioadhesive robot to activate muscles. Nat. Mater. 22, 149–150 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01470-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01470-4

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