Triggerable materials capable of being degraded by selective stimuli stand to transform our capacity to precisely control biomedical device activity and performance while reducing the need for invasive interventions. This talk will cover the development of a modular and tunable light-triggerable hydrogel capable of interfacing with implantable devices. We have applied these materials to two applications in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and demonstrated biocompatibility and on-demand triggering of the material in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo. Light-triggerable hydrogels have the potential to be applied broadly throughout the GI tract and other anatomic areas. By demonstrating the first use of light-degradable hydrogels in vivo, we provide biomedical engineers and clinicians with a previously unavailable, safe, dynamically deliverable, and precise tool to design dynamically actuated implantable devices.

Magnetic fields exert controllable forces that generate microscopic actuation and locomotion in soft materials with superparamagnetic or ferromagnetic components. I will describe the shape changes and materials parameters required to drive and direct matter including filaments, membranes and hydrogels with magnetic components using precessing magnetic fields