A Squid-Inspired Fluid Pump Might Make Labs Greener and Less Costly
Device wins Anthony Janetos Climate Action Prize
A student-built device designed to make lab experiments cheaper, quieter, and more eco-friendly has won Boston University’s Anthony Janetos Climate Action Prize.
The fluid pump—which can be used to help study biological tissues, environmental samples, and cell cultures—was inspired by the mechanism that squid use to propel themselves through water.
The technology was developed by BU College of Engineering (ENG) PhD student Pranav Sultania, with manufacturing and testing support from Isabella Santarpia, an ENG undergrad. Both are studying mechanical engineering (ME).
A fluid pump is the workhorse of the research lab, used in just about any project that involves transferring liquids or suffusing samples with dangerous and delicate chemicals. Unlike the bulky, energy-hungry versions in use today, the BU students’ technology—technically a bistable soft pump platform—is made with flexible materials, taking up at least 50 percent less lab space. To get the fluid moving, the pump mimics a squid’s jet propulsion technique: the mollusk sucks in water then shoots it out to zip through the ocean.
The team says its technology runs on a fraction of the energy required by existing pumps and could save labs thousands of dollars in up-front and running costs. According to their pilot studies across a range of BU labs, the pump reduces power consumption by up to 99 percent compared to current options. With BU’s help, Sultania (ENG’21,’27) has filed a patent for the device and taken the first steps toward incorporating a company, Magnesis Robotics, to commercialize it.
“The Climate Action Prize validates the work that we are trying to do to take this technology and have some real-world impact,” says Sultania. “It shows that people recognize our technology has potential. It’s also a path for taking it outside BU, because people will see we’ve been making an impact outside our own lab.”