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6548 Forest Park Pkwy, St. Louis, MO 63112, USA

https://imse.wustl.edu/
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Dr. Renee Zhao, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University

Millimeter/centimeter-scale origami robots have recently been explored for biomedical applications due to their inherent shape-morphing capability. In this talk, I will present our recent work on magnetically actuated origami robots that can crawl and swim for effective locomotion and targeted drug delivery in severely confined spaces and aqueous environments. The origami robots’ thin shell structure 1) provides an internal cavity for drug storage, 2) permits torsion-induced contraction as a crawling mechanism and a pumping mechanism for controllable liquid medicine dispensing, 3) serves as propellers that spin for propulsion to swim (the magnetic milli-spinner), 4) offers anisotropic stiffness to overcome the large resistance from the severely confined spaces in biomedical environments. These magnetic origami robots can potentially serve as minimally invasive devices for biomedical diagnoses and treatments. 
As an example, I will introduce how the magnetic milli-spinner is further developed as a mechanical thrombectomy technology to treat Acute Ischemic Stroke, a blockage or interruption of blood flow within a cervical or cerebral artery that can result in irreversible brain injury or impaired neuronal function in ischemic brain tissue. The milli-spinner can mechanically debulks and extracts blood clots by significantly densifying the fibrin network to achieve a clot volume reduction to less than 10% of its initial volume. This novel mechanism has demonstrated very high in vitro and in vivo efficacy in pig studies.
 

 

Dr. Renee Zhao, Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering

Hosted by: Dr. Sang-Hoon Bae

  • Benson Francis
  • Junseo Shin
  • Desmond Amoah

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