3D-Printed Biohybrid Robots Powered by Neuromuscular Tissue Circuits from Aplysia californica

Webster, Victoria A.; Young, Fletcher R.; Patel, Jill; Scariano, Gabrielle; Akkuş, Ozan; Gürkan, Umut A.; Chiel, Hillel J.; Quinn, Roger D.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-63537-8_40

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The bioactuator was able to generate a contractile force of 9.33 mN, driving a pump flow rate of 5.0 l/min. Other biohybrid devices were recently fabricated by excising Aplysia californica muscles (31) and neuromuscular tissues (32). Although notable for providing longer lifetime and reduced ethical issues in comparison with mammalian-explanted muscles, these bioactuator types provided limited flexibility in customizing robot shapes and dimensions.…”

Section: Actuators Based On Explanted Whole-muscle Tissuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Deriving and expanding these additional cell types, as well as the specific numbers needed, is an area of continued research to improve both the contractile performance and the lifetime of muscle constructs and consequently of biohybrid actuators. Really few examples of bioactuators based on cell cocultures have been described so far (32,60,71), and no papers have described systems composed of several cell types, trying to reproduce all the main muscle interfaces (vascular, neural, and myotendinous ones). However, multicellular (heterotypic) systems have been recently indicated as possible transformative elements (9,13).…”

Section: Biological Advancements: Cocultures and Stem Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Biohybrid actuators for robotics: A review of devices actuated by living cells

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Actuation is essential for artificial machines to interact with their surrounding environment and to accomplish the functions for which they are designed. Over the past few decades, there has been considerable progress in developing new actuation technologies. However, controlled motion still represents a considerable bottleneck for many applications and hampers the development of advanced robots, especially at small length scales. Nature has solved this problem using molecular motors that, through living cells, are assembled into multiscale ensembles with integrated control systems. These systems can scale force production from piconewtons up to kilonewtons. By leveraging the performance of living cells and tissues and directly interfacing them with artificial components, it should be possible to exploit the intricacy and metabolic efficiency of biological actuation within artificial machines. We provide a survey of important advances in this biohybrid actuation paradigm.

show abstract

Section: Actuators Based On Explanted Whole-muscle Tissuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Biological Advancements: Cocultures and Stem Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biohybrid actuators for robotics: A review of devices actuated by living cells

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Further research should focus on the integration of several tissues and obtaining more complex, yet useful, ways of actuation that can finally prove the benefits of using native muscle tissue instead of man‐made soft actuators. The integration of muscle with neural cells forming NMJs has already been reported in several publications (Aydin et al, 2019; Cvetkovic et al, 2017; Kaufman et al, 2020; Webster et al, 2017), although there are important challenges to be overcome regarding the coculture conditions, the fabrication methods or the scalability of the approaches. Other types of integration could include satellite cells to be able to induce self‐healing when sarcomeres break after exercise (Orfanos et al, 2016), fibroblasts to better emulate the environment of the muscle–tendon unit (Merceron et al, 2015) or vasculature to ensure proper delivery of nutrients (Kolesky et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Multicellular approaches offer the possibility of stimulation with neurons, although these approaches pose a significant challenge in the fabrication of more complex and controllable biohybrid robots. Webster et al employed neuromuscular tissue directly isolated from the sea slug Aplysia californica to power an inchworm‐inspired biohybrid actuator (Webster et al, 2017). The addition of carbamylcholine chloride, a drug that activates acetylcholine receptors, was used to induce neural stimulation, resulting in significantly larger muscle tension.…”

Section: Hybrid Machines At the Macroscalementioning

confidence: 99%

Biohybrid robotics: From the nanoscale to the macroscale

Mestre

Patiño

Sánchez

2021

WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biohybrid robotics is a field in which biological entities are combined with artificial materials in order to obtain improved performance or features that are difficult to mimic with hand‐made materials. Three main level of integration can be envisioned depending on the complexity of the biological entity, ranging from the nanoscale to the macroscale. At the nanoscale, enzymes that catalyze biocompatible reactions can be used as power sources for self‐propelled nanoparticles of different geometries and compositions, obtaining rather interesting active matter systems that acquire importance in the biomedical field as drug delivery systems. At the microscale, single enzymes are substituted by complete cells, such as bacteria or spermatozoa, whose self‐propelling capabilities can be used to transport cargo and can also be used as drug delivery systems, for in vitro fertilization practices or for biofilm removal. Finally, at the macroscale, the combinations of millions of cells forming tissues can be used to power biorobotic devices or bioactuators by using muscle cells. Both cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue have been part of remarkable examples of untethered biorobots that can crawl or swim due to the contractions of the tissue and current developments aim at the integration of several types of tissue to obtain more realistic biomimetic devices, which could lead to the next generation of hybrid robotics. Tethered bioactuators, however, result in excellent candidates for tissue models for drug screening purposes or the study of muscle myopathies due to their three‐dimensional architecture. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology

show abstract

“…Researchers have primarily used cultured cells rather than intact isolated tissues as controllers for mobile robots in vitro . However, in 2017, Webster et al developed a mobile biohybrid robot using the natural neural circuitry and neuromuscular junctions from Aplysia californica (85). This robot used an intact muscle (the I2 protractor muscle (86)), from the animal’s feeding apparatus as an actuator.…”

Section: Organic Components In Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organismal engineering: Toward a robotic taxonomic key for devices using organic materials

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

*Engineers are often inspired by the behavioral flexibility and robustness seen in nature. Recent advances in tissue engineering now allow the use of organic components in robotic applications. By integrating organic and synthetic components, researchers are moving toward the development of engineered organisms whose structural framework, actuation, sensing, and control are partially or completely organic. This review discusses recent exciting work demonstrating how organic components can be used for all facets of robot development. On the basis of this analysis, we propose a robotic taxonomic key to guide the field toward a unified lexicon for device description.

show abstract

3D-Printed Biohybrid Robots Powered by Neuromuscular Tissue Circuits from Aplysia californica

Cited by 15 publications

References 18 publications

Biohybrid actuators for robotics: A review of devices actuated by living cells

Biohybrid actuators for robotics: A review of devices actuated by living cells

Biohybrid robotics: From the nanoscale to the macroscale

Organismal engineering: Toward a robotic taxonomic key for devices using organic materials

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About