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Micro- and nanorobots for biofilm eradication

Nature Reviews Bioengineering (2024)Cite this article

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Micro- and nanorobots present a promising approach for navigating within the body and eliminating biofilm infections. Their motion can be remotely controlled by external fields and tracked by clinical imaging. They can mechanically disrupt the biofilm matrix and kill the dormant bacterial cells synergistically, thereby improving the effectiveness of biofilm eradication.

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Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of MNR platforms and the potential medical procedure, mechanisms and challenges to combat biofilm infection inside the human body.

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Acknowledgements

L.Z. thanks the support by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Research Fellow Scheme (project no. RFS2122-4S03) and the Strategic Topics Grant (project no. STG1/E-401/23-N). We also thank the support from the Multi-scale Medical Robotics Centre (MRC), InnoHK, at the Hong Kong Science Park and the SIAT-CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Bonan Sun & Li Zhang

  2. Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Staffan Kjelleberg

  3. Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Joseph J. Y. Sung

  4. Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Li Zhang

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  1. Bonan Sun
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  2. Staffan Kjelleberg
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  4. Li Zhang
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Contributions

B.S. and L.Z. drafted the manuscript. S.K., J.J.Y.S. and L.Z. reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Staffan Kjelleberg, Joseph J. Y. Sung or Li Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sun, B., Kjelleberg, S., Sung, J.J.Y. et al. Micro- and nanorobots for biofilm eradication. Nat Rev Bioeng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00176-3

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