UC San Diego

The field of synthetic nano/microscale propulsion devices has been rapidly expanding because of their ability to possess many key features necessary for bioanalytical applications on biological microchip devices and targeted in vivo delivery. Past studies focused on developing powerful and easily controllable motors by investigating different propulsion schemes (e.g. electrophoretic, bubble release, magnetically propelled) for use in physiological environments. These engineering advancements and the nanomotors inherit capabilities have allowed for their use in three research areas: motion-based biosensing, cellular and biomolecular isolation, and targeted drug delivery.

The first research area investigates a unique speed increase of electrophoretically propelled nanomotors when in the presence of silver ions. Au/Pt nanomotors propel by the electrocatalytic decomposition of H2O2 fuel. While most metal ions resulted in a decrease in speed to near Brownian levels, Ag+ has shown a steady increase in speed from 10μm/s to 52μm/s over the micro-molar range. This phenomenon was exploited by tagging nucleic acid detector probes with Ag nanoparticles when conducting simple sandwich assays. This resulted in a cheap, fast, and sensitive, motion-based readout of the concentration-dependent DNA target present on the sandwich assay.

The second area of research involved the bioisolation of nucleic acids, protein, bacteria, and cancer cells by bubble-based microrockets. These microrockets contain a platinum interior to catalyze peroxide fuel and can be easily functionalized with antibodies and nucleic acid capture probes to isolate target biomolecules. The motion of these micro-isolation devices creates convection for faster isolation and can be used to transport the biomolecules to a clean environment.

The third area of research is focused on targeted drug delivery by various

propulsion methods. The ability of nanomotors to transport PLGA and liposome drug vesicles to cancer cells is shown in vitro. A powerful ultrasound-triggered propulsion mechanism is used to fire microscale bullets through various tissues, which is necessary for more advanced delivery methods.

Future experiments including modeling the behavior the micro-isolation devices, developing collective behavior nanomotor schemes, and using ultrasound microbullets for in vivo bladder cancer studies are still necessary to develop true commercial applications from this promising field.