PhD Project by Marcin Piotr Piekarczyk

Project Title: Smart Polymer Microrobots for Cargo Transport (Super-MicroCARTs)
Group: Polymer Microsystems
Supervisor: Rafael Taboryski
Co-supervisors: Ada-loana Bunea,Hanne Mørck Nielsen (KU)

Project Desciption
Developing a method for screening a vast number of drug delivery systems within the same cell culture facilitates more accurate comparisons between experiments, significantly reduces the cost of reagents, minimizes cell culture preparation time, and decreases waste production. Consequently, this approach contributes to a more sustainable approach to drug discovery. Achieving this requires precise, localized, on-demand delivery of drug delivery systems in a microscale region of the cell culture. Considering this requirement, microrobots, which are miniaturized, highly mobile tools, are a promising solution for this task.

One reliable method for fabricating microrobots is through micro 3D printing, particularly using the two-photon polymerization (2PP) technique. 2PP offers high-resolution printing, enabling the creation of complex geometries on the microscale, providing great design flexibility. This, in turn, allows for the implementation of smart material-based features on rigid polymer scaffolds that can perform a variety of actions upon activation. By implementing a gripping mechanism, a microrobot can successfully load and unload cargo with high spatial precision in a controlled manner, delivering e.g. drug delivery systems to specific locations in proximity to the cell population.

Microrobots can be manipulated in different media using optical or magnetic trapping, depending on the chosen design and materials. This capability simplifies and ensures precise transportation of microrobots to various locations within a fluid environment, facilitating cargo release at the desired location within a microfluidic chip or in proximity to a cell culture.

Perspective
The PhD project aims to create mobile microrobots with responsive gripping components for cargo transport, fabricated using the 2PP technique. The microrobots’ goal is precise drug delivery within a cell culture. To achieve this, we must design and model various microrobot configurations and develop a consistent method for 4D printing and smart material actuation. Additionally, we need a reliable approach for deploying microrobots in microchips or cell cultures and navigating them using optical or magnetic trapping. Successful completion of this project could transform drug delivery system screening, offering a more efficient and cost-effective method with significant implications for drug development and testing.

This PhD project is part of the Super-MicroCART project funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, grant nr. NNF22OC0079707.