ReviewNature communications2023
Medical microrobots in reproductive medicine from the bench to the clinic.
Review in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Two-Photon Endomicroscopy for Image-Guided Magnetic Micro-Agents.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Rapid Fabrication of Self-Propelled and Steerable Magnetic Microcatheters for Precision Medicine.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Tracking the rotational dynamics of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii across culture days using optical tweezers.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2026Article
- Magnetic medical microrobots with memory-capable genetic circuits.Science advances · 2026Article
- How microrobots should be translated: A clinical and value-centered readiness framework.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Review
- Translational Application of Biomedical Microrobots in Female Reproductive System.ACS nano medicine · 2026Review
- Magnetic field control with dual robotic tunable magnetic end effectors.Communications engineering · 2026Article
- Theranostic Applications of Microrobots: Integrating Diagnostics and Precision Drug Delivery.Current drug discovery technologies · 2026Review
- Navigating the future of assisted reproductive technology with micro-robotics, nanobiosensors and artificial intelligence.Nature nanotechnology · 2026Article
- Magnetically controlled microrobotic system for programmable stiffness tuning and active steering of microcatheters.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Magnetically Controlled Microrobots for In Vivo Non-Invasive Embryo Transfer.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Magnetically Driven Living Microrobot Swarms for Aquatic Micro- and Nanoplastic Cleanup.ACS nano · 2025Article
- Integration of Bioengineered Tools in Assisted Reproductive Technologies.Advanced healthcare materials · 2025Review
- Micro- and Nano-Bots for Infection Control.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Swarm Autonomy: From Agent Functionalization to Machine Intelligence.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Magnetic soft microrobots for erectile dysfunction therapy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Magnetic control of soft microrobots near step-out frequency: Characterization and analysis.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Magnetically Driven Quadruped Soft Robot with Multimodal Motion for Targeted Drug Delivery.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- FERTILTY CARE IN LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES: Fertility care in low- and middle-income countries.Reproduction & fertility · 2024Review
- Micro/Nanorobotics in In Vitro Fertilization: A Paradigm Shift in Assisted Reproductive Technologies.Micromachines · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Medical microrobotics is an emerging field that aims at non-invasive diagnosis and therapy inside the human body through miniaturized sensors and actuators. Such microrobots can be tethered (e.g., smart microcatheters, microendoscopes) or untethered (e.g., cell-based drug delivery systems). Active motion and multiple functionalities, distinguishing microrobots from mere passive carriers and conventional nanomedicines, can be achieved through external control with physical fields such as magnetism or ultrasound. Here we give an overview of the key challenges in the field of assisted reproduction and how these new technologies could, in the future, enable assisted fertilization in vivo and enhance embryo implantation. As a case study, we describe a potential intervention in the case of recurrent embryo implantation failure, which involves the non-invasive delivery of an early embryo back to the fertilization site using magnetically-controlled microrobots. As the embryo will be in contact with the secretory oviduct fluid, it can develop under natural conditions and in synchrony with the endometrium preparation. We discuss the potential microrobot designs, including a proper selection of materials and processes, envisioning their translation from bench to animal studies and human medicine. Finally, we highlight regulatory and ethical considerations for bringing this technology to the clinic.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.