Protein redox by a piezoelectric acousto-nanodevice.

Protein redox is responsible for many crucial biological processes; thus, the ability to modulate the redox proteins through external stimuli presents a unique opportunity to tune the system. In this work, we present an acousto-nanodevice that is capable of oxidizing redox protein under ultrasonic irradiation surface-engineered barium titanate (BTO) nanoparticles with a gold half-coating. Using cytochrome c as the model protein, we demonstrate nanodevice-mediated protein oxidation.

Light responsive plasmonic silicone elastomer/hydrogel soft actuator.

Soft robots offer unique advantages in their ability to interact with fragile organisms. Light responsive soft actuators are promising for the development of the untethered soft robots. However, this requires a mechanism for converting the externally applied light into mechanical actuation.

A Hydrogel-Based Ultrasonic Backscattering Wireless Biochemical Sensing.

Wireless monitoring of the physio-biochemical information is becoming increasingly important for healthcare. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept hydrogel-based wireless biochemical sensing scheme utilizing ultrasound. The sensing system utilizes silica-nanoparticle embedded hydrogel deposited on a thin glass substrate, which presents two prominent interfaces for ultrasonic backscattering (tissue/glass and hydrogel/glass).

Implantable Cisplatin Synthesis Microdevice for Regional Chemotherapy.

Cisplatin, the first platinum chemotherapy agent to obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1978, is widely used for a number of cancers. However, the painful side effects stemming from systemic delivery are the inevitable limitation of cisplatin. A possible solution is regional chemotherapy using various drug delivery systems, which reduces the systemic toxicity and increases drug accumulation in the tumor.

Untethered Actuation of Hybrid Hydrogel Gripper via Ultrasound.

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels that exhibit reversible volume changes in response to stimulus cues such as heat, pH, and light have been utilized in soft robotics, microfluidics, electronics, and biomedical surgical tools. While the development of the soft robotics has widely expanded, most external triggering systems still have limited utilities due to the low selectivity. We present a hybrid gripper capable of undergoing preprogrammed shape transformation utilizing ultrasound energy on-off processes as the external triggering system, which can be utilized in invisible and nonselective environments.

Ultrasonic Hydrogel Biochemical Sensor System.

In this work, we present a proof-of-concept hydrogel-based sensor system capable of wireless biochemical sensing through measuring backscattered ultrasound. The system consists of silica-nanoparticle embedded hydrogel deposited on a thin glass substrate, presenting two interfaces for backscattering (tissue/hydrogel and hydrogel/glass), which allows for system output to be invariant under the change in acoustic properties (e.g.