ChemLife

Prof. Larisa Florea

ERC Starting Grant

ChemLife, Artificial micro-vehicles with life-like behaviour,  aims to develop bio-inspired microscopic vehicles fabricated from stimuli responsive materials using advanced 3D fabrication technologies, which hold potential as autonomous drug delivery systems within the human body. These soft, smart vehicles will be designed to swim or crawl through fluids to actively recognise, sense, and respond to the external environment. These multifunctional micro-vehicles hold potential as autonomous drug delivery systems within the human body.

Dr Florea said: “The project aims to tackle some of the grand challenges in materials research, by showing that intelligent chemistry, smart design and precise engineering can give enhanced capabilities to soft materials, which have not been achievable to date. This project will enable the creation of soft microstructures, which could navigate, transport cargo, sense and even diagnose. For me, it is extremely captivating to give such functions, which we naturally associate with living things, to inanimate materials.”