Lecture | Tuesday Talk
Life-like microswimmers from the 3D printer
- Date
- Tuesday 10 March 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- CM1.26
Imagine tiny swimming microrobots that can sense and adapt to their environment—all without sensors, electronics, or programming. They navigate complex fluids, avoid obstacles, and respond to their surroundings. With these characteristics they could be a powerful platform for targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive medical interventions, and advanced diagnostics.
Join us for this Tuesday Talk, where Professor Daniela Kraft will reveal how 3D microprinting allows her team to create flexible, life-like microswimmers, and how these tiny structures are opening new possibilities at the intersection of physics, biology, and engineering.
Join this Tuesday Talk
Everyone who is interested in this edition's topic is welcome. Please let us know if you are attending.
RegisterProgramme
The programme of the Tuesday Talk is:
| 15.45 hrs | Take a seat |
| 16.00 hrs | Tuesday Talks: Science Insights |
| 17.00 hrs | Drinks |
Emergent motion in flexible microscopic systems
In living organisms, motion often arises from the interplay between shape and activity. Today’s synthetic microrobots typically lack this adaptability, and need external control to switch between different modes of motion. At the Huygens–Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Kraft and her group use 3D microprinting to create anisotropic, flexible microswimmers that are different: they adapt their motion independently.
These minimal systems display an unexpectedly rich variety of motion—ranging from railway-like and undulatory locomotion to rotation and beating—and they can reorient themselves, navigate through complex environments, and even avoid collisions. By embedding feedback directly into their physical design rather than in electronics, these microrobots achieve autonomous capabilities that emerge naturally from their structure and activity.
About the speaker
Daniela Kraft is Full Professor of Soft Matter Physics at the Huygens–Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory at Leiden University. Her research investigates self-organisation in biological and soft-matter systems using simplified model systems such as anisotropic colloids, lipid membranes, and microswimmers. She earned her PhD cum laude at Utrecht University, conducted postdoctoral research at New York University with support from an NWO Rubicon grant, and has received an ERC Starting Grant as well as NWO VENI and VIDI grants. Her work has been highlighted in Nature, Science, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
About the Tuesday Talks
The Tuesday Talks are Leiden Science’s monthly dose of research inspiration from our staff, for our staff and all others curious minds. Every second Tuesday of the month from 16:00 hrs till 17:00 hrs, drinks and meet up afterwards till 18.00 hrs.