Beomjune Shin

Abstract Preclinical studies are crucial for developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drugs. Current FDA-approved drugs have been created by monitoring limb muscle function and histological analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis model animals. Drug candidates for this disease have yet to be tested for bulbar-onset type due to the limitations of traditional preclinical tools: excessive animal use and discrete detection of disease progress.

1 Introduction Dysphagia is estimated to affect ≈9.44 million patients annually in the United States due to various underlying conditions,[1-3] and can have an incidence as high as 80% in populations like brainstem stroke.[4] Dysphagia is often underdiagnosed and undertreated where quality of life is negatively impacted and harmful consequences such as aspiration pneumonia,[5] choking, malnutrition, dehydration, and even death can occur.[6] Aspiration, the phenomenon of a bolus entering the...

Microrobots that are light and agile yet require no artificial power input can be widely used in medical, military, and industrial applications. As an actuation system to drive such robots, here we report a biologically inspired bilayer structure that harnesses the environmental humidity energy, with ratchets to rectify the motion. We named this actuator-ratchet system the hygrobot.