Wiley's Advanced Materials and Advanced Intelligent Systems invite visionary researchers, engineers, clinicians, materials scientists, and innovators to contribute to a forthcoming special issue on “Shaping the Future of Intelligent Medical Microrobotics”, inspired by the themes of MIRA 2026: Microrobotics for Real-World Medical Applications, to be held in Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain, from 14–16 October 2026. The special issue will be guest edited by Prof. Mariana Medina Sánchez (CIC nanoGUNE) and Prof. Bradley Nelson (ETH Zurich).

Medical microrobotics is entering a defining moment. Once viewed primarily as a frontier research area, the field is now moving rapidly toward transformative clinical impact, with the potential to enable minimally invasive interventions, targeted therapeutic delivery, advanced diagnostics, real-time sensing, and access to regions of the body that remain beyond the reach of conventional tools. As the community advances from elegant proof-of-concept studies toward robust preclinical validation, first-in-human translation, and commercial deployment, intelligent systems will be essential for turning microrobotic innovation into real-world medical solutions.

Scope of the Special Issue

This special issue will spotlight bold, high-impact research at the intersection of intelligent systems and medical microrobotics. We welcome contributions that push the field beyond incremental advances by demonstrating new robotic platforms, materials-enabled capabilities, AI-assisted design and control strategies, biohybrid or cell-based microrobots, and translational frameworks that bring micro- and nanorobotic technologies closer to meaningful clinical adoption.

Topics of Interest

• Micro- and nanorobotic systems for diagnosis, therapy, surgery, imaging, sensing, and targeted delivery
• Intelligent actuation, navigation, planning, localisation, and closed-loop control in complex biological environments
• AI, machine learning, and data-driven approaches for microrobot design, optimisation, deployment, and autonomy
• Biohybrid, cell-based, soft, magnetic, acoustic, optical, chemical, and multifunctional microrobotic systems
• Materials innovations enabling biocompatibility, degradability, programmability, responsiveness, or multimodal function
• Microrobotics for life-threatening diseases, niche clinical indications, and hard-to-reach anatomical sites
• Integration of microrobotics with advanced therapies, including gene editing, immunotherapies, stem-cell technologies, and nanomedicine
• Preclinical models, in vitro-to-in vivo translation, safety assessment, scalability, manufacturing, and reproducibility
• Regulatory, ethical, clinical, and patient-centred considerations for first-in-human studies
• Entrepreneurship, spin-off creation, clinical adoption pathways, and academia–industry–clinic collaboration

Article Types

Submissions may include Research Articles, Reviews, Perspectives, and Progress Reports. Authors are encouraged to highlight conceptual ambition, technical excellence, system-level intelligence, translational relevance, and the wider significance of their work for the next generation of precision medicine.

Proposed Submission Deadline

Proposed submission deadline: December 31^st, 2026

Submission Information

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the author guidelines for the Advanced Portfolio and submitted through the journal’s online submission system. Authors should indicate in their cover letter that the manuscript is intended for consideration in this special issue and select the section “Intelligent Medical Microrobotics” when prompted during submission.