The first robots (xenobot) from living cells use cells of a frog

Under normal circumstances the stem cells of frog embryos would skin and heart tissue of living beings, however, the progress of scientific knowledge has turned them into the first ever living robots.

Scientists from the University of Vermont with the help of special algorithms modified stem cells of a frog and created of them the first “xenobot” – clumps of cells, capable of self-organization and even to transport tiny cargo. These colonies of 500-1000 cells do not resemble any living organism, or a naturally functioning body. At the same time they are different from the traditional robot is alive, but programmed organisms.

The opportunity to design a live guided machine, able to perform various tasks, from drug delivery to environmental cleanup, is truly revolutionary.

To create xenobot required a supercomputer and an algorithm that assemble in the desired configuration, hundreds of heart cells and skin tissue and simulates the result of such a living designer. The least successful configuration of the scientists involved in the experiment, culled, best preserved and improved using manipulations of the cells of the African frog Xenopus laevis microscopic tweezers and the electrode.

In one of the configurations, the scientists there is a hole in the center of the clot to reduce the resistance when driving. The experiment revealed that it can be used to attach to the get of goods for transportation.

After completing the Assembly of the fabric of biorobots began to operate at the programmed scenario: the skin cells began to group together, and provided the cardiac motor function. In an aqueous medium in the Petri dish these living machines can move up to a week without nutrient requirements – energy supply inherent nature in the form of lipids and proteins.

Scientists say that this experiment gives an invaluable experience of knowing how cells communicate and exchange information:

“From the point of view of the genome, it’s a frog. 100% DNA xenobot corresponds to the frog, but not frog. The question arises – what else can be built from these cells? says biologist Michael Levin. – This experiment shows us that frog cells can form life-forms that have nothing to do with the fact that they were anatomically”.

However, living these robots can be called only conditionally – they are not able to develop, you do not have the reproductive function and can’t reproduce without the will of man, and, having exhausted all the resources of nutrients, they turn into lumps of dead cells (100% Biodegradability is a clear advantage of biological robots before the metal or plastic robots).

So far, the level of development xenobot seems completely harmless, but in the future they can enrich and nerve cells or even to turn into a new form of biological weapons.

Under normal circumstances the stem cells of frog embryos would skin and heart tissue of living beings, however, the progress of scientific knowledge has turned them into the first ever living robots.

Scientists from the University of Vermont with the help of special algorithms modified stem cells of a frog and created of them the first “xenobot” – clumps of cells, capable of self-organization and even to transport tiny cargo. These colonies of 500-1000 cells do not resemble any living organism, or a naturally functioning body. At the same time they are different from the traditional robot is alive, but programmed organisms.

The opportunity to design a live guided machine, able to perform various tasks, from drug delivery to environmental cleanup, is truly revolutionary.

To create xenobot required a supercomputer and an algorithm that assemble in the desired configuration, hundreds of heart cells and skin tissue and simulates the result of such a living designer. The least successful configuration of the scientists involved in the experiment, culled, best preserved and improved using manipulations of the cells of the African frog Xenopus laevis microscopic tweezers and the electrode.

In one of the configurations, the scientists there is a hole in the center of the clot to reduce the resistance when driving. The experiment revealed that it can be used to attach to the get of goods for transportation.

After completing the Assembly of the fabric of biorobots began to operate at the programmed scenario: the skin cells began to group together, and provided the cardiac motor function. In an aqueous medium in the Petri dish these living machines can move up to a week without nutrient requirements – energy supply inherent nature in the form of lipids and proteins.

Scientists say that this experiment gives an invaluable experience of knowing how cells communicate and exchange information:

“From the point of view of the genome, it’s a frog. 100% DNA xenobot corresponds to the frog, but not frog. The question arises – what else can be built from these cells? says biologist Michael Levin. – This experiment shows us that frog cells can form life-forms that have nothing to do with the fact that they were anatomically”.

However, living these robots can be called only conditionally – they are not able to develop, you do not have the reproductive function and can’t reproduce without the will of man, and, having exhausted all the resources of nutrients, they turn into lumps of dead cells (100% Biodegradability is a clear advantage of biological robots before the metal or plastic robots).

So far, the level of development xenobot seems completely harmless, but in the future they can enrich and nerve cells or even to turn into a new form of biological weapons.

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