Emma L. Hawley
Papers
3
Total Citations
66
H-Index
3
About
Emma L. Hawley is a pioneer in the emerging field of biohybrid robotics, where she engineers living machines by integrating biological muscle cells with synthetic scaffolds. Her research focuses on developing small-scale, compliant actuators for medical applications and minimally invasive environmental monitoring. Hawley’s most cited work, "Effect of actuating cell source on locomotion of organic living machines with electrocompacted collagen skeleton" (2016, 31 citations), demonstrates how different muscle cell types influence the movement of biohybrid devices, establishing foundational principles for designing organic robots. She also introduced the sea slug *Aplysia californica* as a novel muscle source for biohybrid robots (2016, 29 citations), expanding the palette of biological materials available to the field. Additionally, her work on fabricating electrocompacted aligned collagen morphs for cardiomyocyte-powered living machines (2015, 6 citations) advances scaffold design for cardiac tissue engineering. Collectively, Hawley’s contributions—though still early in citation impact—are shaping the next generation of soft, biocompatible robots that can safely interact with living tissues, offering transformative potential for targeted drug delivery, micro-surgery, and environmental sensing.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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