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About

Onur Aydin is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of biological systems and soft robotics, with a primary focus on biohybrid machines, neuromuscular actuation, and engineered tissue systems. His work has fundamentally advanced the field by demonstrating how living muscle and neural cells can be integrated with soft robotic scaffolds to produce autonomous, controllable locomotion — a challenge once considered a distant frontier. Aydin's most celebrated contribution, "Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots" (2019, 189 citations), marked a landmark step toward neurally controlled biohybrid systems, while his complementary work on simulation and fabrication of walking biohybrid machines (2018, 110 citations) established design principles that made biological actuators stronger, faster, and more predictable. His development of 3D engineered neural tissue mimics and compliant frameworks with embedded strain sensors has further expanded the toolkit available for in vitro biomedical research. More recently, Aydin has pushed toward optogenetically controlled miniature biohybrid robots and forward-engineered muscle-driven swimmers, demonstrating a commitment to translating theoretical models into functional devices. Across his body of work, totaling over 400 citations, Aydin has consistently bridged biological complexity with engineering precision, making him a compelling figure for students interested in the future of living machines and biorobotics.