Biology subjects

Wittkowski, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Wittkowski, R..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Bioinspired Geometry-Encoded Rheotactic Navigation of Sound-Driven Microrobots

Imitating the shape-encoded tactics of natural microswimmers--organisms that flip, roll, and rheotaxis through viscous fluids--could transform microfluidics, micromanufacturing, and targeted therapy. However, translating those geometric navigation cues into actively driven microrobots is an open, largely unexplored challenge. Here, inspired by the structure of sperm cells, we introduce a sound-propelled head-helix microparticle ("microrobot") featuring an elliptical head and a spiral tail. This asymmetrical design interacts with the incident acoustic field, generating complex secondary flows that induce a torque, enabling the particle to reorient around its cross-section. The microparticle exhibits a preferred direction of propulsion and orientation when exposed to a traveling sound wave, reorienting if its initial alignment deviates from this preference. Both the preferred direction and orientation can be modulated by adjusting the sound frequency, and they further adapt to background flow fields in the environment. Furthermore, the microparticle exhibits rheotaxis-like motion, exhibiting wall-following motion with frequency-dependent sliding behavior. By moving towards the channel wall, it enters the region with the smallest flow velocities, allowing it to move antiparallel to the fluid. These findings contribute to the engineering of the trajectories of sound-propelled microparticles and to the development of next-generation microrobots for medical and other innovative applications.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Bio-Inspired Ultrasound-Driven Ultrafast Soft Microgripper

Acoustically actuated soft matter offers potential for agile microscale manipulation, yet acoustic-soft matter interaction at the microscale remains poorly understood. Here, we explore the mechanism of ultrasound-soft matter interaction by developing a bio-inspired ultrasound-driven soft hydrogel microgripper. This exploration allows to delve deeper into the understanding of nonlinear dynamics, mode coupling, and energy transfer. The developed microgripper ([≤] 120 {micro}m) overcomes key challenges of existing grippers, including complex fabrication, reliance on additives or external wiring, rigid structures, slow or poorly controllable responses, and risks of sample damage or contamination. Interacting with acoustic actuation, soft microgrippers oscillate and deform, while adjusting acoustic parameters and microgrippers structures allows for programmable interactions. The optimized acoustic actuation of the soft microgripper enables precise, ultrafast ([~]2 ms) gripping and handling of distinct delicate objects. This work advances the integration of soft matter with acoustic actuation especially at the microscale, offering a versatile, reliable, and scalable solution for microrobotics, targeted drug delivery, and lab-on-a-chip applications. TeaserAcoustic-soft matter interaction validated on bio-inspired ultrasound-driven ultrafast soft microgrippers.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

3D dynamic multiscale force and shape analysis of in-vivo elastic stress sensors

The measurement of stresses and forces at the tissue level has proven to be an indispensable tool for the understanding of complex biological phenomena such as cancer invasion, embryo development or wound healing. One of the most versatile tools for force inference at the cell and tissue level are elastic force sensors, whose biocompatibility and tunable material properties make them suitable for many different experimental scenarios. The evaluation of those forces, however, is still a bottleneck due to the numerical methods seen in literature until now, which are usually slow and render low experimental yield. Here we present Bead-Buddy, a ready-to-use platform for the evaluation of deformation and stresses from fluorescently labelled sensors within seconds. The strengths of BeadBuddy lie in the pre-computed analytical solutions of the elastic problem, the abstraction of data into Spherical Harmonics, and a simple user interface that creates a smooth workflow for force inference. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=174 SRC="FIGDIR/small/633835v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (54K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@80c95corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@123d712org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1fd1ce0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@72c688_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2023

Analytical method for reconstructing the stress on a spherical particle from its surface deformation

The mechanical forces that cells experience from the tissue surrounding them are crucial for their behavior and development. Experimental studies of such mechanical forces require a method for measuring them. A widely used approach in this context is bead deformation analysis, where spherical particles are embedded into the tissue. The deformation of the particles then allows to reconstruct the mechanical stress acting on them. Existing approaches for this reconstruction are either very time-consuming or not sufficiently general. In this article, we present an analytical approach to this problem based on an expansion in solid spherical harmonics that allows us to find the complete stress tensor describing the stress acting on the tissue. Our approach is based on the linear theory of elasticity and uses an ansatz derived by Love. We clarify the conditions under which this ansatz can be used, making our results useful also for other contexts in which this ansatz is employed. Our method can be applied to arbitrary radial particle deformations and requires a very low computational effort. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated by an application to experimental data. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEMeasurements of mechanical forces acting on cells in a tissue are important for understanding the physical behavior of biological systems, but they are also quite challenging. A common strategy is to place a spherical bead inside the tissue and to then reconstruct the mechanical stress from the bead deformation that this stress causes. Here, we introduce a novel analytical method using which this reconstruction can be achieved. This method is significantly faster than numerical approaches and significantly more general than existing analytical techniques, such that it can be expected to find a broad range of applications in mechanobiology.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2023

An Acoustically Controlled Microrobot Modelled on Spirochete Bacteria

As a next-generation toolkit, microrobots can transform a wide range of fields, including micromanufacturing, electronics, microfluidics, tissue engineering, and medicine. While still in their infancy, acoustically actuated wireless microrobots are becoming increasingly attractive, as acoustic control can generate large propulsive forces, requires relatively simple microrobot design, and does not entail complex manipulation systems. However, the interaction of acoustics with microstructure geometry is poorly understood to date, and its study is necessary for developing next-generation acoustically powered microrobots. We present here a mass-manufactured acoustically driven helical microrobot capable of locomotion using a fin-like double-helix microstructure. This microrobot responds to sound stimuli and mimics the spiral motion of natural microswimmers such as spirochetes. The asymmetric double helix interacts with the incident acoustic field, inducing a propulsion torque that causes the microrobot to rotate around its long axis. Moreover, our microrobot has the unique feature of its directionality being switchable by simply tuning the acoustic frequency. We demonstrate this locomotion in 2D and 3D artificial vasculatures using a single sound source. Since ultrasound is widely used as an imaging modality in clinical settings, our robotic system can integrate seamlessly into practice; thus, our findings could contribute to the development of next-generation smart microrobots. One-Sentence SummaryWe present an acoustically driven helical microrobot capable of corkscrew-like locomotion using a double-helix microstructure.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2021

Pressure drives rapid burst-like collective migration from 3D cancer aggregates

Collective migration of cells is a key behaviour observed during morphogenesis, wound healing and cancer cell invasion. Hence, understanding the different aspects of collective migration is at the core of further progress in describing and treating cancer and other pathological defects. The standard dogma in cell migration is that cells exert forces on the environment to move and cell-cell adhesion-based forces provide the coordination for collective migration. Here, we report a new collective migration mechanism that is independent of pulling forces on the extra-cellular matrix (ECM), as it is driven by the pressure difference generated inside model tumours. We observe a striking collective migration phenotype, where a rapid burst-like stream of HeLa cervical cancer cells emerges from the 3D aggregate embedded in matrices with low collagen concentration (0.5 mg ml-1). This invasion-like behaviour is recorded within 8 hours post embedding (hpe), and is characterised by high cell velocity and super-diffusive collective motion. We show that cellular swelling, triggered by the soft matrix, leads to a rise in intrinsic pressure, which eventually drives an invasion-like phenotype of HeLa cancer aggregates. These dynamic observations provide new evidence that pressure-driven effects need to be considered for a complete description of the mechanical forces involved in collective migration and invasion.

biophysics↗