Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created a biohybrid robot. This mechanism, interacting with living tissue, was able to work for more than a week. The research materials are published in the journal Science Robotics.
First of all, scientists created a robot skeleton using 3D printing. They then equipped it with hinges and mounts to secure living tissue. The final touch was the electrodes, with the help of which the muscle tissue was stimulated, causing it to contract.
In the next step, muscle tissue was grown. To do this, the researchers used myoblasts - stem cells that transform into various types of muscle cells. Scientists placed the cells in hydrogel layers, made holes in the layers to attach them to the scaffold, and also introduced tape structures that allowed muscle fibers to grow between the attachments.
One of the study's authors, Shoji Takeuchi, reported that the scientists used muscles to flex and extend, just like in the human body. Takeuchi says that unlike previous experiments, the muscles in the new study performed opposite actions, and this saved them from stretching and wear.
The mechanism can only bend and unbend the "finger", but this allows the robot to lift a small ring and hang it on a hook. The two mechanisms together can lift a small square plate.
Probably the creation of a "biohybrid finger" is not the most efficient way to cope with this task. But scientists say there will be more practical applications for robots of this type in the future.
Complex mechanisms can be used to study the structure of the human body and to develop treatment methods. Researcher Yuya Morimoto believes that by combining muscles into a complex mechanism, scientists will be able to simulate the work of muscles in body parts.
Robots will prove useful in the pharmaceutical industry. Biohybrid robots can be used to test drugs or conduct other experiments. Laboratory animals are no longer needed. Biohybrid robots have a lot in common with organ-on-a-chip technology that is currently under development.
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It cannot be said that today a biohybrid robot is capable of much, but the future of medicine is in its so-called "hands".
Anton Komarov
