Stable and Highly Steerable Magnetic Nanorobots Demonstrate Therapeutical Functionality in Crowded Biological Media
Magnetic nanorobots primarily composed of ferromagnetic materials have been extensively investigated for their potential medical applications. Here, we have designed and developed superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs)-functionalized nanorobots (SPIONs-NR), a system that is significantly smaller in size and has larger magnetic anisotropy and steerability than most previously reported superparamagnetic microrobots. We demonstrate that the nanorobots are highly stable against magnetic agglomeration, even at high densities. Due to their smaller size, they can be controllably steered through crowded biological media, which was not possible before. We have maneuvered the robots through the extracellular matrix to target and annihilate malignant cells via magnetic hyperthermia-induced localized heating. Collectively, these properties make SPIONs-NR promising candidates for nanomedicine applications.
Authors
- Reshma Vasantha Ramachandran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7448-0679)
- Suvra S. Laha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3599-2594)
- Ramray Bhat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5215-9721)
- Jyotiprakash Behera
- Mallar Banerjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5416-4225)
- Ambarish Ghosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2524-0014)
- Alexander M. Leshansky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9272-8987)
- Souravi Mukherjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8888-1596)
- Sayanta Goswami
- Paramita Modak
- Ankur Jaiswar
- Deepak Kumar Saini
- Debayan Dasgupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2834-7837)
- Konstantin I. Morozov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7648-4118)
Institutions
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (FR)
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Nano
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c03144
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Micro and Nano Robotics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.77
Funders
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
- Israel Science Foundation
- Council for Higher Education
- Ministry of Electronics and Information technology
- The Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance
- Science and Engineering Research Board