Researchers from Tufts University and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University were able to create small biobots that they have named Anthrobots. These biobots are made from the tracheal cells of humans that can move through a surface.
Novel Anthrobots
The multicellular biobots were developed for self-assembly. They have also been shown to have a strong healing effect on other kinds of cells. The discovery serves as the beginning of the researchers' vision to utilize biobots derived from patients for therapeutic mechanisms for disease treatment, healing, and regeneration.
The anthrobots are roughly as big as a human hair's width, while they can go as big as a sharpened pencil's point.
The work on anthrobots comes after earlier studies done at the labs of Michael Levin and Josh Bongard. Back then, researchers developed biobots from embryonic cells of frogs. They named these bots Xenobots, which were capable of gathering material, navigating paths, recording data, replicating on their own for a few cycles, and healing from injury.
The new study titled "Motile Living Biobots Self-Construct from Adult Human Somatic Progenitor Seed Cells" finds that biobots can be made from the human cells of adults without performing any genetic modifications. These novel bots are also showing capacities that go beyond what was seen among Xenobots.
The researchers granted the human cells an opportunity to reboot, find ways to perform tasks, and create novel structures. Gize Gumuskaya, a PhD student who earned an architecture degree before entering biology, explains that they wanted to look into what the cells could do other than create some default features for the body. By reprogramming intercell interaction, new structures with multiple cells can be made. This is analogous to how brick and stone can be organized into various elements of structure, such as columns, archways, and walls.
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Neuron Growth Assistance
The researchers also observed that these cells could not just make multi-celled shapes but could also navigate through various ways on the surface of human neurons that were grown in a lab dish. They could also encourage neuron growth to help with the gaps that were due to scratching over cell layers.
How the biobots were able to foster growth remains a mystery. However, the authors were able to confirm that neurons grew beneath the area that was covered by an assembly of Anthrobots that was clustered. Researchers then called this the superbot.
Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush biology professor from the School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University, explains that the cell assemblies constructed in the lab may have capacities that exceed what they could do within the body. Levin adds that it is quite unexpected and fascinating how tracheal cells are capable of moving independently and encouraging the growth of neurons in a damaged region.
The researchers are now looking into the mechanism of healing and seeing what other things the constructs are capable of.
The benefits of using the cells of humans include the capacity to make biobots based on the own cells of patients to perform therapeutic functions without having to risk an immune response trigger or need immunosuppressants. These only last for a couple of weeks prior to their breakdown. Hence, the body can easily absorb them again when the work is finished.
In conditions outside of the body, anthrobots can only live in specific conditions in the lab. There is also no risk of unintended spread or exposure beyond the lab. These bots also do not reproduce, nor do they have any genetic deletions, additions, or edits. This means that they do not pose any risk of evolving to exceed current safety limits.
The researchers note that further bot development could birth other applications, such as repairing retinal nerve or spinal cord damage, clearing the buildup of plaque in atherosclerosis patients' arteries, and transporting drugs to specifically targeted tissues.
RELATED ARTICLE: Xenobots: Living Robots Named After African Clawed Frog Reproduce in New Biological Form
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