One-stop cell assembly, enrichment, and transportation: surface acoustic wave microrobotics for on-chip patterned microtissue construction

Cell assembly is a key technology in tissue engineering, cell biology, and immunology, providing cell spheroids and microtissues as advantageous models for studying cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, differentiation, and drug screening. However, conventional methods often require additional centrifugation and concentration steps, or a substantial sample volume to meet instrument operational requirements, and thus struggle to perform rapid, integrated processing of small-volume, precious cell samples. In this study, we present a surface acoustic wave microrobotic system designed to rapidly enrich and assemble cells, precisely control the motion of the resulting cell clusters, and ultimately transport patterned microtissue arrays. Using multiple types of cells (including SGC-7901, SH-SY5Y, and CPM170), we characterized and validated the system’s high biocompatibility and cell viability. Given its multifunctionality and high accuracy, this surface acoustic wave microrobot can serve as a practical, adaptable one-stop processing platform with significant potential to provide an efficient acoustic solution for organoid formation and tissue engineering.