Xenobot

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Xenobot in simulation (left) and real (right), with skin cells in green and heart muscle cells in red

Xenobot (named after the cell origin of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis ) is the name for a biological micro- robot that was constructed from cells from frog embryos .

properties

Xenobots were first described as "programmable organisms" in a publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January 2020. According to media reports, “a living, programmable being was created for the first time”. The cells of the Xenobot consist of skin and heart muscle cells and were generated from embryonic stem cells of X. laevis in the blastula stage . The contraction of the muscle cells creates a locomotion that is more or less directed depending on the shape of the Xenobot. A natural formation of cilia in X. laevis was suppressed by microinjection of the mRNA of the intracellular protein domain of Notch into the embryo. Without a supply of nutrients (after the growth phase), Xenobots survive in aqueous solutions for about a week and can heal minor injuries . As biological organisms, Xenobots are completely biodegradable .

function

The “ideal shape” depending on the task was calculated by an artificial intelligence . The shape required for a task is determined using an evolutionary algorithm . The approximately 0.7 millimeter Xenobot can move independently and carry small loads.

use

Xenobots are used to study how cells work together during morphogenesis . Xenobots are also used to accumulate microscopic particles in a cell culture dish. Possible areas of application are the distribution of drugs in the body or the removal of microplastics or radioactive waste. Due to the purely mechanical structure of skin and muscle in this configuration, possible mechanical tasks such as the removal of arterial plaques or the location of cancer cells or other sources of disease are suspected. To avoid an immune response against Xenobots from patients, the cells of the Xenobot would have to be obtained from the cells of the respective patient. By using other cell types , additional non-mechanical tasks could be performed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matt Simon: Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism ( English ) In: Wired . January 13, 2020. Accessed January 17, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f S. Kriegman, D. Blackiston, M. Levin, J. Bongard: A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 117, number 4, January 2020, pp. 1853-1859, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1910837117 , PMID 31932426 , PMC 6994979 (free full text).
  3. ↑ a b c Alexandra Bröhm: “Xenobot is not a robot or an animal, but a new species” . In: Tages-Anzeiger . January 17, 2020. Accessed January 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ P. Ball: Living robots. In: Nature Materials . Volume 19, number 3, March 2020, p. 265, doi : 10.1038 / s41563-020-0627-6 , PMID 32099110 .