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Using Self-Assembling Swimming Devices to Control Motion at the Nanoscale

使用自组装游泳装置控制纳米级运动

基本信息

批准号：
EP/J002402/1
负责人：
Stephen Ebbens
金额：
$ 114.26万
依托单位：
University of Sheffield
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FJ002402%2F1
关键词：
Using Self Assembling Swimming Devices

项目摘要

Films such as the "Fantastic Voyage" imaginatively explore the idea of developing miniaturised devices capable of navigating through the body and performing tasks, such as removing tumours. While this vision may seem fantastical, the reality is that researchers are moving closer towards this goal. At present, man-made machines a fraction of the width of a human hair can swim around in water containing a small amount of chemical "fuel" without any external intervention. By equipping these devices with magnets, they can also be manually steered towards cargo using external fields, which they can pick up, drag and then release. However these achievements have not yet enabled the ultimate goal of making devices that can navigate themselves through the body to deliver a drug to a particular therapeutic target. In this case it is impractical to use external steering, and the devices must instead find their own way. This is very challenging because of the way in which liquid environments are experienced by miniaturised devices. Due to the way in which liquid properties change at small sizes, the devices experience the surrounding fluid as treacle like; meaning they cannot generate motion using the swimming motions that we are familiar with. Also the devices are constantly jostled by collisions from surrounding molecules, causing them to change their position and orientation randomly, and in some parts of the body there are turbulent flows to contend with.The aim of this Fellowship is to overcome these challenges to build miniaturised swimming devices that can direct themselves towards targets without external intervention, to enable a range of applications including targeted drug delivery. In order for this to be possible the devices must be able to adjust their motion according to their surroundings. This will be achieved using a new range of materials that expand and contract according to the presence or absence of certain signalling chemicals. These size changes will cause the swimming device to change the degree to which it is affected by the random knocks it receives, either keeping it moving in a straight line, or encouraging it to change direction rapidly. The size changes will and also alter the speed of the device. In this way devices can exploit the chaos of their surroundings to carry them to specific locations. The ability to attach and release cargo in a similarly responsive way will also be developed. As well as producing significant advances for drug delivery, the transport systems developed by the Fellowship will also be used to transport material for analysis within medical diagnostic devices. In addition, a class of swimmers that rotate rather than translate will be made and used to mix fluids such as chemical reagents in the small channels of these diagnostic systems. The enhanced motion of the swimmers can also be used to speed up reaction rates in chemical processes, resulting in faster industrial processes.To build swimming devices for the above tasks with desirable properties such as being fast, and moving in a straight line, the Fellowship will develop new manufacturing methods. Combining conventional parts together to make devices can simply be carried out by positioning them in the correct places and sticking them together, however at small scales such operations are impractically laborious and require expensive microscopic manipulations. A more practical approach is to instead equip the individual components with "sticky tags" or other features that will bias the self-assembly to make preferred structures. However some variations will remain. One of the key novel methodologies of the work will actually exploit this variation, by applying "natural selection" using a physical obstacle course to pick out devices with the best performance for a particular task. In this way efficient swimmers can assemble themselves by exploiting a random process without requiring external intervention.

像《神奇旅程》这样的电影富有想象力地探索了开发微型设备的想法，这些设备能够在人体内导航，并执行诸如切除肿瘤等任务。尽管这一愿景可能看起来很奇幻，但现实是，研究人员正在向这一目标靠近。目前，只有人类头发一小部分宽度的人造机器可以在含有少量化学“燃料”的水中游来游去，而无需任何外部干预。通过为这些设备配备磁铁，它们还可以使用外部磁场手动转向货物，它们可以拾取、拖动并释放这些磁场。然而，这些成就还没有实现制造能够在体内自动导航的设备的最终目标，从而将药物输送到特定的治疗靶点。在这种情况下，使用外部转向是不切实际的，设备必须找到自己的方式。这是非常具有挑战性的，因为微型设备体验液体环境的方式。由于液体性质在小尺寸下发生变化的方式，这些设备体验到周围的液体就像糖浆一样；这意味着它们不能使用我们熟悉的游泳运动来产生运动。此外，这些设备不断地受到周围分子的碰撞，导致它们随机改变位置和方向，在身体的某些部位需要与湍流作斗争。本奖学金的目的是克服这些挑战，建立微型游泳设备，在没有外部干预的情况下，能够将自己导向目标，从而实现包括靶向药物输送在内的一系列应用。为了实现这一点，这些设备必须能够根据周围环境调整自己的运动。这将使用一系列新的材料来实现，这些材料根据某些信号化学物质的存在或不存在而膨胀和收缩。这些大小的变化将导致游泳设备改变它受到随机撞击的程度，要么保持它在直线上移动，要么鼓励它迅速改变方向。大小的变化也会改变设备的速度。通过这种方式，设备可以利用其周围环境的混乱来将它们携带到特定的位置。还将开发以类似的响应方式安装和释放货物的能力。除了在药物输送方面取得重大进展外，该研究金开发的运输系统还将用于运输材料，以便在医疗诊断设备中进行分析。此外，还将制造一种旋转而不是平移的游泳者，并将其用于在这些诊断系统的小通道中混合化学试剂等流体。游泳者的增强运动也可以用来加快化学过程中的反应速度，从而导致更快的工业过程。为了制造出满足上述任务的游泳设备，并具有诸如快速和直线移动的理想特性，该联谊会将开发新的制造方法。将传统部件组合在一起制造设备只需将它们放置在正确的位置并将它们粘合在一起即可完成，但在小规模情况下，这种操作不切实际地费力，而且需要昂贵的微观操作。一种更实际的方法是给单个组件配备“粘性标签”或其他特征，这些特征将使自组装偏向于制造首选结构。然而，一些变化将保持不变。这项工作的一种关键的新颖方法实际上将利用这种变化，通过使用物理障碍赛道来应用“自然选择”来为特定任务挑选性能最佳的设备。通过这种方式，高效的游泳者可以在不需要外部干预的情况下，通过随机过程进行自我组装。