{ "abstract": "Spinal cord injury remains difficult to treat because of the intrinsically limited regenerative capacity of neurons. Although neural progenitor cell (NPC) therapies are promising, inadequate graft survival, uncontrolled differentiation and weak functional integration continue to restrict outcomes. Here we report biohybrid microrobots called NPCbots, fabricated by integrating human-induced pluripotent-stem-cell-derived NPCs with magnetoelectric nanoparticles, enabling wireless magnetic navigation and non-invasive neuronal stimulation. A lab-on-a-chip platform allows scalable fabrication and maintains cell viability and differentiation capacity. In a zebrafish spinal cord injury model, alternating magnetic field stimulation of NPCbots induced rapid in vivo neuronal and astrocytic differentiation, enhanced graft integration at the lesion site, and near-complete recovery of swimming and exploratory behaviours within 3 days. In a non-regenerating murine model of complete spinal cord transection, NPCbots were well tolerated for at least 28 days, localized effectively to the injury site, promoted neural differentiation and resulted in substantial improvements in motor function within 4 weeks. These results demonstrate that magnetically guided NPCbots combined with non-invasive magnetoelectric stimulation promote neural repair and functional recovery in preclinical spinal cord injury models.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), Institute of Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland", "Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), Institute of Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland", "Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. jingjing.zang@mls.uzh.ch", "Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland", "Department of Pharmaceutics, Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China", "College of Electronic Information and Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China", "Key Laboratory of Biomaterials of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Engineering Technology Research Center of Drug Carrier of Guangdong, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China", "Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), Institute of Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. semih.sevim@chem.ethz.ch", "Instituto de Ciencia Molecular, Universitat de València, Paterna, Spain", "Acoustics Robotics Systems Lab (ARSL), ETH-Zürich, Rüschlikon CH-880, Switzerland", "International Institute for Intelligent Nanorobots and Nanosystems, College of Intelligent Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing, State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology, Shanghai Frontiers Science Research Base of Intelligent Optoelectronics and Perception, Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. xzchen@fudan.edu.cn", "Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Extreme Environment Functional Materials, Yiwu Research Institute of Fudan University, Yiwu, China. xzchen@fudan.edu.cn", "Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain", "Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain", "Acoustic Robotics Systems Lab, ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland", "Acoustics Robotics Systems Lab (ARSL), ETH-Zürich, Rüschlikon, Switzerland", "Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Química Física Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain", "Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain", "Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Química Física Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain", "Department of Pharmaceutics, Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China. luocong@syphu.edu.cn", "Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), Institute of Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. bnelson@ethz.ch", "Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. stephan.neuhauss@mls.uzh.ch", "Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), Institute of Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. vidalp@ethz.ch" ], "article_type": null, "arxiv": null, "author_total": 22, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Hao Ye", "orcid": "0000-0003-3526-9627" }, { "affs": [ 2, 3 ], "name": "Jingjing Zang", "orcid": "0000-0002-2186-6001" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Jiawei Zhu", "orcid": "0000-0002-2961-1302" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Denis von Arx", "orcid": "0009-0004-0432-3007" }, { "affs": [ 4, 1 ], "name": "Jian Zhao" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Vitaly Pustovalov", "orcid": "0009-0000-2582-7678" }, { "affs": [ 5, 1 ], "name": "Minmin Mao" }, { "affs": [ 6, 0, 1 ], "name": "Qiao Tang", "orcid": "0000-0003-4928-5417" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Andrea Veciana", "orcid": "0000-0003-0060-0949" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Harun Torlakcik", "orcid": "0000-0002-6084-5852" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Elric Zhang", "orcid": "0000-0003-1681-5573" }, { "affs": [ 7, 1 ], "name": "Semih Sevim", "orcid": "0000-0003-1461-1606" }, { "affs": [ 8, 0, 1 ], "name": "Roger Sanchis‐Gual", "orcid": "0000-0002-9096-7930" }, { "affs": [ 0, 9 ], "name": "Quan Gao", "orcid": "0000-0003-1383-842X" }, { "affs": [ 10, 11, 12, 13 ], "name": "Xiangzhong Chen", "orcid": "0000-0002-2294-7487" }, { "affs": [ 14, 15, 16, 17 ], "name": "Daniel Ahmed", "orcid": "0000-0002-0224-5293" }, { "affs": [ 12, 13, 1 ], "name": "Maria Victoria Sanchez-Vives", "orcid": "0000-0002-8437-9083" }, { "affs": [ 18, 12, 3 ], "name": "Josep Puigmartí‐Luis", "orcid": "0000-0002-7510-9815" }, { "affs": [ 19, 1 ], "name": "Cong Luo", "orcid": "0000-0002-0506-9598" }, { "affs": [ 20 ], "name": "B.J. Nelson", "orcid": "0000-0001-9070-6987" }, { "affs": [ 21 ], "name": "Stephan C. F. Neuhauss", "orcid": "0000-0002-9615-480X" }, { "affs": [ 22 ], "name": "Salvador Pané", "orcid": "0000-0003-0147-8287" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f7rdp4njnw3h4.bib", "cited_by": 14, "doi": "10.1038/s41563-026-02625-3", "fulltext_url": null, "id": "f7rdp4njnw3h4", "issns": [ "1476-1122", "1476-4660" ], "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02625-3", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY", "licence_label": "CC BY", "licence_source": "journal", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "openalex", "2728|Spinal Cord Injury Research" ], [ "openalex", "2734|Spinal Cord Injury Research" ] ], "openalex": "W4401416364", "pdf_url": null, "pmcid": "PMC13658017", "pmid": "42230974", "published": "2026-06-02", "publisher": "Nature Portfolio", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f7rdp4njnw3h4.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:26:54Z", "native_id": "W4401416364", "source": "openalex", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02625-3" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "openalex:2728|Spinal Cord Injury Research", "subfield": "neurology" } ], "title": "Magnetoelectric microrobots for spinal cord injury regeneration", "title_text": "Magnetoelectric microrobots for spinal cord injury regeneration", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:16Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f7rdp4njnw3h4", "venue": "Nature Materials", "versions": [] }