Magnetic microbots can hook up brain cells to make a neural network

By Donna Lu

Microrobot covered in neurons (green and blue)

Hongsoo Choi, Professor & Chair, Department of Robotics Engineering, Co-Director, DGIST-ETH Microrobotics Research Center, DGIST

Tiny robots that can transport individual neurons and connect them to form active neural circuits could help us study brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The robots, which were developed by Hongsoo Choi at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea and his colleagues, are 300 micrometres long and 95 micrometre wide. They are made from a polymer coated with nickel and titanium and their movement can be controlled with external magnetic fields.

Each robot …