Imagine a world where medical solutions are no longer considered invasive. A world where the use of steel and plastic in certain implants and operations is replaced with cells specifically built to solve problems is not so far away according to a new study. Researchers at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies have recently developed a method for utilizing AI to generate living robots. These collections of cells, constructed from frog stem cells, can operate independently, performing simple motions or functions. Though this study appears simple in origin, its possible uses range far and wide.
These so-called “Xenobots” are created through a complex process akin to a simulated evolutionary experiment run by AI programs. Shapes and structures of cells that perform the desired tasks most aptly are pitted against other successful structures in tests until the program determines the most effective “builds”. Utilizing more modern technology, Bioengineers use microscopic fabricators to adhere the cells together, creating their final forms.
The possible uses for these cells range across many fields, medical, industrial and experimental. Though these xenobots are short lived and simple in function, they could possibly be coupled together in complex ways that may be able to achieve advanced outcomes. Some possible examples cited in a video by AsapScience is a xenobot built from a patient’s natural cells that is designed to seek out a brain tumor and destroy it in a non-invasive manner, or to seek out and destroy microplastics in the oceans. With the borders between biology and bionics becoming so blurred, scientists are now looking to push the envelope and increase testing to reach these imagined uses.
Sources:
A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organismsSam Kriegman, Douglas Blackiston, Michael Levin, Josh BongardProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 117 (4) 1853-1859; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910837117
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