Steering of magnetotactic bacterial microrobots by focusing magnetic field for targeted pathogen killing

Targeted steering of magnetotactic bacterial microrobots is a growing tendency for their various biomedical applications. However, real-time monitoring during their movements and targeted cell killing in specific locations remains challenging. Here, we steered bacterial microrobots to target and attach to Staphylococcus aureus that was subsequently killed in a magnetic target device, which can realize guiding, mixing, and killing for targeted therapy. The generated focusing magnetic field was applied to magnetotactic bacterial microrobots, and the realizability of control strategies was analyzed. We successfully guided magnetotactic bacterial microrobots in microfluidic chips without real-time monitoring of their location. After mixing with microrobots under a rotating magnetic field for their attachment, the pathogen was killed under a swinging magnetic field. These results suggest that targeted therapy with these microrobots by using a magnetic target device is a promising approach.