Xiaoguang Dong, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award that will support research on magnetic miniature soft robots for precision medicine that could facilitate early disease detection and treatment.
Magnetic miniature soft robots are unique in their ability to safely and non-invasively navigate complex, enclosed, and confined spaces. However, despite recent advancements in the actuation, control, localization, and navigation of such robots, their functionality remains constrained by size and structural simplicity, limiting their potential in precision medicine.
But through use of the $622,769 award, Dong’s research aims to integrate wirelessly controlled microfluidics into the robots to enable complex and multifunctional behaviors. This integration will allow bioagent manipulation, including liquid drug delivery and biofluid sampling.
“It is an incredible honor to receive the prestigious NSF CAREER Award which is highly competitive,” said Dong, who is also assistant professor of biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering. “The resulting robot will be able to navigate on complex terrains and perform targeted liquid biopsy and drug delivery, facilitating early disease detection and therapeutic interventions with minimal invasiveness and side effects.”
Additionally, Dong said comprehensive educational activities incorporate and complement the research, including a new undergraduate course on bioinspired robotics, and an outreach program to public high schools.
Last year, Dong was awarded an R21 Trailblazer Award by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pursue a project about “Wirelessly Actuated Ciliary Stent for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Cilia Dysfunction.”
The Trailblazer R21 Award supports new and early-stage investigators pursuing research programs that are of high interest to NIBIB, at the interface of life sciences with engineering and the physical sciences.
To learn more about Dong’s NSF Award, visit https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2441459&HistoricalAwards=false
Contact: Lucas Johnson, lucas.l.johnson@vanderbilt.edu