Editorial:
Special Issue on Sensor Introduction into Cells and Tissues for Information Transmission
Yoko Yamanishi*1, Miho Tagawa*2, Yoshikazu Haramoto*3, Kotaro Hiramatsu*4, and Naoki Inomata*5
*1Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
*2Professor, Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability (IMaSS), Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
*3Professor, Department of Agri-Production Sciences, College of Agriculture, Tamagawa University
6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan
*4Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University
744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
*5Associate Professor, Department of Robotics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
6-6-01 aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
Recent advances in bioengineering, nanotechnology, and robotics have provided new opportunities for acquiring information from living cells and tissues. To accurately monitor biological states and functions, sensors and artificial structures must be introduced into intracellular and intratissive environments, not just on tissue surfaces. However, the implementation of such systems requires addressing several issues, including weak signal generation, low signal-to-noise ratios, long-term biocompatibility, and reliable information transmission from biological environments.
This special issue focuses on the emerging technologies and fundamental research that support the introduction of sensors and artificial functional structures into cells and tissues. This issue includes 23 selected papers on various topics, including microfluidic platforms, intracellular delivery technologies, nanomaterial-based sensing systems, tissue-embedded sensors, cellular biointerfaces, biological signal acquisition, and information transmission architectures. Several studies have also explored future directions involving artificial organelles, molecular communication, biohybrid systems, and cybernetic avatar-based healthcare applications.
The papers are organized to guide the readers from fundamental platform technologies and sensor materials to intracellular sensing, tissue-integrated systems, and future information transmission frameworks. This special issue highlights the interdisciplinary efforts required to develop reliable long-term sensing systems embedded within living cells and tissues.
We sincerely thank all authors for their valuable contributions and the reviewers for their dedicated efforts. We also express our gratitude to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics for their support in publishing this special issue.
This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.