Tiny Bio Bots From Illiniois

Holy, Moly!  How did they do this?

Researchers down the street at the University of Illinois report on an astonishing “biohybrid” robot [1].

To be clear, there have been plenty of biobots built with muscle tissue, including here at Illinois.

This one is a bit more than that:  they used both muscle tissue and nerve tissue, to create a little bot that moves by muscles under the direction of the nerves.   Whoa!

“This biohybrid swimmer exemplifies a multicellular engineered living system that is developed via a synthesis of top-down engineering and bottom-up self-organization and development.” ([1], p. 19846)

(There isn’t a word in that sentence that I don’t like!)

Fig. 1. Conceptual framework. The embodiment of the envisioned motile bot consists of an engineered scaffold, ECM, muscle tissue, and optogenetic motor neurons, operating in a fluid environment and responding to external light stimuli. Engineered muscle tissue is formed through self-organization of muscle cells and ECM, guided by the shape of the scaffold. Functional neuromuscular units develop in situ whereby motor neurons extend neurites and innervate the muscle tissue. Appropriate design choices can result in a biohybrid machine capable of locomotion actuated by neuromuscular units. (From [1])

This study uses now established techniques for culturing tissues in a 3D scaffolding. In this case, muscle tissue and motor neurons are cultured together and self-organize into muscle tissue, and motor neurons “extend neurites selectively toward the muscle and innervate it, developing functional neuromuscular units.” ([1] , p. 19841)  Whoa!

The research developed computational methods to design an effective swimmer, with a flat head and a flexible tail for swimming.  This involved a lot of cool biomechanical theory and some serious computational modelling. Even cooler, the neurons are responsive to light, so the little swimmer is activated and controlled by light.

They created a real bot, which demonstrated “actual untethered locomotion”—it works!

Well done, all!

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1. Onur Aydin, Xiaotian Zhang, Sittinon Nuethong, Gelson J. Pagan-Diaz, Rashid Bashir, Mattia Gazzola, and M. Taher A. Saif, Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (40):19841, 2019. http://www.pnas.org/content/116/40/19841.abstract
2. Lois Yoksoulian, Researchers build microscopic biohybrid robots propelled by muscles, nerves, in University of Illinois Research News. 2019. https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/802738

 

Robot Wednesday