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Yunus Alapan

Yunus Alapan

Assistant Professor
gscholar website
lab website

Yunus Alapan leads the Bio-integrated Robotics Lab at UW-Madison. His research group works at the interface of robotics, microtechnology and bioengineering, developing soft micro-robots inspired by nature for healthcare applications. The overarching theme of Alapan’s research is bionic cellular and tissue robots for size-matched and spatiotemporally resolved physical and biochemical manipulation of cells and tissues, with applications in in vitro disease modeling, therapeutic cell and tissue manufacturing and targeted drug delivery.

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Contact

2234, Mechanical Engineering Bldg
1513 University Ave
Madison, WI

Featured news

Focus on new faculty: Yunus Alapan creates microrobots to benefit human health

February 9, 2024

  • PhD 2016, Case Western Reserve University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
  • MS 2012, Yıldız Technical University, Mechanical Engineering Department
  • BS 2011, Yıldız Technical University

  • Microrobots
  • Soft Robots
  • Biohybrid Robots
  • Mechanobiology
  • Immunoengineering

  • 2018 The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Honorable Mention winner in 2018 Patents for Humanity Program
  • 2018 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Dedicated to Physiology and Medicine, Outstanding Young Scientist Selected to Attend and Present
  • 2017 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
  • 2017 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence
  • 2015 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C), Finalist in the 2015 PhD podium competition
  • 2015 NASA, NASA Tech Briefs Create the Future Design Contest, Top-100 entries
  • 2015 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Case Western Reserve University, Special Recognition Award for Research
  • 2015 Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology (CIMIT), Student Technology Prize for Primary Healthcare
  • 2014 NASA, NASA Tech Briefs Create the Future Design Contest, 1st place in Medical Category

  • Aybar Tural, G., Bozuyuk, U., Dogan, N. O., Alapan, Y., Akolpoglu, M. B., Aghakhani, A., Lazovic, J., Ozer, O., & Sitti, M. (2024). Magnetic Mesoporous Janus Microrollers for Combined Chemo-and Photothermal Ablation Therapy. Advanced Therapeutics, 7(2), 2300319.
  • Muhuri, A. K., Alapan, Y., Camargo, C. P., & Thomas, S. N. (2024). Microengineered in vitro assays for screening and sorting manufactured therapeutic T cells. The Journal of Immunology, 212(2), 199--207.
  • Camargo, C. P., Alapan, Y., Muhuri, A. K., Lucas, S. N., & Thomas, S. N. (2024). Single-cell adhesive profiling in an optofluidic device elucidates CD8+ T lymphocyte phenotypes in inflamed vasculature-like microenvironments. Cell Reports Methods, 4(4).
  • Camargo, C. P., Muhuri, A. K., Alapan, Y., Sestito, L. F., Khosla, M., Manspeaker, M. P., Smith, A. S., Paulos, C. M., & Thomas, S. N. (2023). Adhesion analysis via a tumor vasculature-like microfluidic device identifies CD8+ T cells with enhanced tumor homing to improve cell therapy. Cell Reports, 42(3).
  • Tural, G. A., Bozuyuk, U., Dogan, N. O., Alapan, Y., Akolpoglu, M. B., Aghakhani, A., Lazovic, J., Ozer, O., & Sitti, M. (2023). Magnetic Mesoporous Janus Microrollers for Combined Chemo-and Photothermal Ablation Therapy.
  • Sridhar, V., Podjaski, F., Alapan, Y., Kr"oger, Julia,, Grunenberg, L., Kishore, V., Lotsch, B. V., & Sitti, M. (2022). Light-driven carbon nitride microswimmers with propulsion in biological and ionic media and responsive on-demand drug delivery. Science Robotics, 7(62), eabm1421.
  • Akolpoglu, M. B., Alapan, Y., Dogan, N. O., Baltaci, S. F., Yasa, O., Aybar Tural, G., & Sitti, M. (2022). Magnetically steerable bacterial microrobots moving in 3D biological matrices for stimuli-responsive cargo delivery. Science Advances, 8(28), eabo6163.
  • Alapan, Y., & Thomas, S. N. (2022). Mechanics drive lymph node expansion. Nature Immunology, 23(8), 1139--1141.
  • Bozuyuk, U., Aghakhani, A., Alapan, Y., Yunusa, M., Wrede, P., & Sitti, M. (2022). Reduced rotational flows enable the translation of surface-rolling microrobots in confined spaces. Nature Communications, 13(1), 6289.
  • Sitti, M., Sridhar, V., Podjaski, F., Alapan, Y., Kroger, J., Grunenberg, L., Kishore, V., V Lotsch, B., & Sitti, M. (2021). Biocompatible carbon nitride-based light-driven microswimmer propulsion in biological and ionic media with responsive on-demand drug delivery. ArXiv.

  • M E 342 - Design of Machine Elements (Spring 2025)
  • M E 491 - Mechanical Engineering Projects I (Spring 2025)
  • M E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • M E 342 - Design of Machine Elements (Fall 2024)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Fall 2024)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Summer 2024)