By KIM BELLARD
Several topics were on my mind this week, but when I came across news about biological robots, I knew I had found my topic.
The news comes from researchers at Tufts University and Harvard’s Wyss Institute. Their paper appeared in Advanced Science, introducing a “spheroid-shaped multicellular biological robot (biobot) platform” that they lovingly dubbed “Anthrobots.” Importantly, the Anthrobots are made from human cells.
In 2020, senior researcher Michael Levin, Ph.D., and Josh Bongard, Ph.D. of the University of Vermont created biological robots made from frog embryo cells, called Xenobots. This new research showed that they could create biological robots from other types of cells, especially human cells, including adult tracheal cells. Capabilities of the Anthrobots were demonstrated to be beyond those of Xenobots.
The Anthrobots come in different shapes and sizes and are capable of various motions. They can form layers, fold, make spheres, sort and separate themselves by type, fuse together, and move, showing capabilities beyond what is found in nature. Additionally, they are scalable, able to be produced from adult cells, and do not require tweezers or scalpels to give them shape.
The researchers tested Anthrobots’ healing capabilities, demonstrating efficient healing of defects in human neural monolayers in vitro. Ultimately, the hope is to use Anthrobots created from a patient’s own cells to perform therapeutic work, involving a wide variety of potential health care applications.
This work has been deemed as a potential boost to personalized medicine, demonstrating the ability to coach cells to do something they would never have done on their own.
The researchers are eager to further explore what other cells Anthrobots can be made of, what other behaviors they might exhibit in various environments, and what other tissue types they can repair or affect.
In conclusion, as we look towards the potential of robots performing therapeutic actions inside our bodies, what could be better than a biological robot made from our own cells?
Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented Tincture.io, and now a regular THCB contributor
