Yoel Fink | Bioelectronics at MIT

Magnetic robots walk, crawl, and swim

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

MIT scientists have developed tiny, soft-bodied robots that can be controlled with a weak magnet. The robots, formed from rubbery magnetic spirals, can be programmed to walk, crawl, swim — all in response to a simple, easy-to-apply magnetic field.

“This is the first time this has been done, to be able to control three-dimensional locomotion of robots with a one-dimensional magnetic field,” says Professor Polina Anikeeva, whose team published an open-access paper on the magnetic robots June 3 in the journal Advanced Materials. “And because they are predominantly composed of polymer and polymers are soft, you don’t need a very large magnetic field to activate them. It’s actually a really tiny magnetic field that drives these robots,” adds Anikeeva, who is a professor of materials science and engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, a McGovern Institute for Brain Research associate investigator, as well as the associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics and director of MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center.

The new robots are well suited to transport cargo through confined spaces and their rubber bodies are gentle on fragile environments, opening the possibility that the technology could be developed for biomedical applications. Anikeeva and her team have made their robots millimeters long, but she says the same approach could be used to produce much smaller robots.

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Multifunctional microelectronic fibers enable wireless modulation of gut and brain neural circuits

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Unraveling connections between the brain and gut

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors. This extensive communication network also influences our mental state and has been implicated in many neurological disorders.

MIT engineers have designed a new technology for probing those connections. Using fibers embedded with a variety of sensors, as well as light sources for optogenetic stimulation, the researchers have shown that they can control neural circuits connecting the gut and the brain, in mice.

In a new study, the researchers demonstrated that they could induce feelings of fullness or reward-seeking behavior in mice by manipulating cells of the intestine. In future work, they hope to explore some of the correlations that have been observed between digestive health and neurological conditions such as autism and Parkinson’s disease.

“The exciting thing here is that we now have technology that can drive gut function and behaviors such as feeding. More importantly, we have the ability to start accessing the crosstalk between the gut and the brain with the millisecond precision of optogenetics, and we can do it in behaving animals,” says Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, director of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center, associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Anikeeva is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in Nature Biotechnology. The paper’s lead authors are MIT graduate student Atharva Sahasrabudhe, Duke University postdoc Laura Rupprecht, MIT postdoc Sirma Orguc, and former MIT postdoc Tural Khudiyev.

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Magnetically Actuated Fiber‐Based Soft Robots

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Thermally Drawn Highly Conductive Fibers with Controlled Elasticity

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 15:46:21 +0000

Electrochemical Modulation of Carbon Monoxide-Mediated Cell Signaling

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Customizing Multifunctional Neural Interfaces through Thermal Drawing Process

Tue, 18 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Controlling drug activity with light

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hormones and nutrients bind to receptors on cell surfaces by a lock-and-key mechanism that triggers intracellular events linked to that specific receptor. Drugs that mimic natural molecules are widely used to control these intracellular signaling mechanisms for therapy and in research.

In a recent publication, a team led by MIT Associate Professor Polina Anikeeva, a McGovern Institute for Brain Research Associate Investigator, and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Research Assistant Professor James Frank introduce a microfiber technology to deliver and activate a drug that can be induced to bind its receptor by exposure to light.

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Selectively Micro-Patternable Fibers via In-Fiber Photolithography

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In vivo photopharmacology enabled by multifunctional fibers

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Gaseous Messenger Molecule

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Nitric oxide is an important signaling molecule in the body, with a role in building nervous system connections that contribute to learning and memory. It also functions as a messenger in the cardiovascular and immune systems.

But it has been difficult for researchers to study exactly what its role is in these systems and how it functions. Because it is a gas, there has been no practical way to direct it to specific individual cells in order to observe its effects. Now, a team of scientists and engineers at MIT and elsewhere has found a way of generating the gas at precisely targeted locations inside the body, potentially opening new lines of research on this essential molecule’s effects.

The findings are reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by MIT professors Polina Anikeeva, Karthish Manthiram, and Yoel Fink; graduate student Jimin Park; postdoc Kyoungsuk Jin; and 10 others at MIT and in Taiwan, Japan, and Israel.

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In situ electrochemical generation of nitric oxide for neuronal modulation

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Muscle

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Strain-programmable fiber-based artificial muscle

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Muscles

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

MIT researchers, including professors Polina Anikeeva, Yoel Fink, and Cem Tasan, have developed a new fiber-based system that could be used as artificial muscles for robots, prosthetic limbs, or other mechanical and biomedical applications. Inspired by cucumber plants, which use their tightly-coiled tendrils to pull the plants upwards, this system utilizes a heat-activated coiling-and-pulling mechanism. Two materials that have different rates of thermal expansion are joined, causing the resulting fiber to form a tight coil with a surprisingly strong pulling force when even a small increase in temperature is applied. This process of contracting and expanding was shown in testing to maintain its strength even after repeating 10,000 times.

These fibers can span a wide range of sizes, and can easily be manufactured in batches up to hundreds of meters long. They are extremely lightweight and can respond quickly. Such fibers could be useful as actuators in robotic arms, legs, or grippers, as well as in prosthetic limbs, although postdoc Mehmet Kanik says that the possibilities for materials of this type are virtually limitless.

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Scalable Fabrication of Porous Microchannel Nerve Guidance Scaffolds with Complex Geometries

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible fiber-based optoelectronics for neural interfaces

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible and stretchable nanowire-coated fibers for optoelectronic probing of spinal cord circuits

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

One-step optogenetics with multifunctional flexible polymer fibers

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Thermally drawn fibers as nerve guidance scaffolds

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Multifunctional fibers

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Multifunctional fibers for simultaneous optical, electrical and chemical interrogation of neural circuits in vivo

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000