Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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FM: Fachverband Funktionsmaterialien

FM 6: Focus Session: Materials Discovery I – Material informatics

FM 6.11: Vortrag

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 12:30–12:45, BEY/0138

Soft Degradable Magnetic Microcarriers for Encapsulation and Guided Transport of Drugs and 3D Spheroids — •Lulu Song, Xinne Zhao, Xuan Peng, Željko Janićijević, Lin Guo, Denys Makarov, and Larysa Baraban — Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany

Soft microrobots hold strong promise for next-generation biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, and minimally invasive therapies. However, their translation remains limited by challenges in scalable fabrication, controlled biodegradation, and insufficient co-encapsulation and transport of diverse cargos. Here, we present degradable hydrogel microcarriers fabricated via droplet-based microfluidics and UV photopolymerization, enabling scalable production with tunable properties. These microcarriers can co-encapsulate therapeutic molecules, superparamagnetic particles, and living cell spheroids, supporting multifunctional delivery strategies. Their motion is precisely actuated under externally applied gradient magnetic fields, allowing guided navigation in microchannels for targeted delivery. Importantly, the microcarriers exhibit programmable degradation under physiological conditions, providing temporary mechanical integrity, controlled release, and safe post-treatment clearance, with complete degradation at 37 °C within several days. Overall, this platform offers a robust and biocompatible soft microrobotic system for targeted therapies, micro-tissue transport, and diagnostic monitoring, representing a promising step toward clinical translation.

Keywords: magnetic microcarrier; droplet microfluidics; hydrogel; biodegradability