Development of Miniaturized Walking Biological Machines

Chan, Vincent; Park, Kidong; Collens, Mitchell B.; Kong, Hyunjoon; Saif, Taher A.; Bashir, Rashid

doi:10.1038/srep00857

Cited by 204 publications

(184 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Populations of cardiomyocytes have been used as actuators in a variety of macroscopic mechanical devices that operate at high Re, including a millimetre-scale pump 15 , autonomous or paced walkers or swimmers 16,17 , and a jellyfish 18 , all involving twodimensional films or three-dimensional structures. These larger scale devices, with millimetre to centimetre scale deformations, generate propulsion by high Re mechanisms that are not viable at the microscale.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A self-propelled biohybrid swimmer at low Reynolds number

et al. 2014

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Many microorganisms, including spermatozoa and forms of bacteria, oscillate or twist a hairlike flagella to swim. At this small scale, where locomotion is challenged by large viscous drag, organisms must generate time-irreversible deformations of their flagella to produce thrust. To date, there is no demonstration of a self propelled, synthetic flagellar swimmer operating at low Reynolds number. Here we report a microscale, biohybrid swimmer enabled by a unique fabrication process and a supporting slender-body hydrodynamics model. The swimmer consists of a polydimethylsiloxane filament with a short, rigid head and a long, slender tail on which cardiomyocytes are selectively cultured. The cardiomyocytes contract and deform the filament to propel the swimmer at 5-10 mm s À 1 , consistent with model predictions. We then demonstrate a two-tailed swimmer swimming at 81 mm s À 1 . This small-scale, elementary biohybrid swimmer can serve as a platform for more complex biological machines.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Primary cardiomyocytes are extracted from 2-to 4-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats 16 under approved Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocol number 11160. The hearts are immediately transferred to ice-cold Hank's balanced salt solution after dissection.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A self-propelled biohybrid swimmer at low Reynolds number

et al. 2014

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“…We have shown that PEGbased hydrogels can serve as tunable skeletons for walking biohybrid robots powered by primary cardiomyocytes. [112] A non-natural skeleton geometry, fabricated via stereolithographic 3D printing, patterned with a sheet of cardiac cells is shown to crawl across a 2D substrate with a precisely defined "stick-slip" walking mechanism ( Figure 8B). …”

Section: Use Of Primary Tissue As Biohybrid Machine Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimicry, Biofabrication, and Biohybrid Systems: The Emergence and Evolution of Biological Design

Raman

Bashir

2017

Adv Healthcare Materials

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how the concept of bioinspiration, or imitating biological design and functionality in synthetic materials, created a new class of "smart" biomimetic materials. Then, we shall discuss how the continuing development of enabling manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing and microfluidics, has established the separate subdiscipline of biofabrication for tissue engineering, or "building with biology." Finally, we shall investigate the convergence of these two fields into the emerging discipline of biohybrid design, the use of biological materials to power non-natural functional behaviors in synthetic machines. Throughout this report, we will revisit a single class of materials, hydrogels, as a case study of biological design in the context of each subfield, and discuss how the constraints, underlying principles, and end-use applications differ in each case. We will also discuss ethical considerations of biological design, with a special focus on forward engineering non-natural or hypernatural functional behaviors in biohybrid systems. We will conclude with recommendations for implementing biological design into educational curricula, ensuring effective and responsible practices for the next generation of engineers and scientists. Biomimicry and Bioinspired DesignA deeper understanding of the underlying design principles that govern biological systems has inspired the field of biomimicry. [1,2] Observing adaptive phenomena in nature, scientists and engineers have sought to extract the components of biological design responsible for this behavior and replicate the behavior in synthetic materials. Fundamentally, this involves understanding the building blocks or base units from which a biological material is built, the hierarchical assembly of these building blocks, and the interactions and interfaces between them.In this section, we will discuss strategies that engineers and scientists have employed to engineer bioinspired hierarchy, from bottom-up self-assembly and top-down engineered assembly. We will present several key demonstrations of stimulus-responsive hydrogels ranging from the micro-to the macroscale, and investigate novel demonstrations in biomimetic actuation and movement. We will conclude with the remaining challenges in the field of biomimicry and discuss the potential future impact of bioinspired design.The discipline of biological design has a relatively short history, but has undergone very rapid expansion and development over that time. This Progress Report outlines the evolution of this field from biomimicry to biofabrication to biohybrid systems' design, showcasing how each subfield incorporates bioinspired dynamic adaptation into engineered systems. Ethical implications of biological design are discussed, with an emphasis on establishing responsible practices for engineering non-natural or hypernatural functional behaviors in biohybrid systems. This report concludes with recommendations for implementing biological design into educational curricula, ensuring effective and responsible practice...

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“…Therefore, analyzing the contractile force, mechanical properties, and dynamic beating behavior of heart cells is of great significance for the quantitative understanding of the mechanism of heart disease and the molecular alterations that occur in diseased heart cells (3). Moreover, cardiomyocytes have been used as actuators in the development of bio-syncretic robots in recent years (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) for their advantageous functional features, including spontaneous contraction, high energy conversion efficiency, and high energy density (10). Therefore, understanding the mechanical dynamics of heart cells is essential for designing, actuating, and controlling cardiomyocyte actuation-based bio-syncretic robots.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Model for Characterizing Contractile Behaviors and Mechanical Properties of a Cardiomyocyte

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2018

Biophysical Journal

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Studies on the contractile dynamics of heart cells have attracted broad attention for the development of both heart disease therapies and cardiomyocyte-actuated micro-robotics. In this study, a linear dynamic model of a single cardiomyocyte cell was proposed at the subcellular scale to characterize the contractile behaviors of heart cells, with system parameters representing the mechanical properties of the subcellular components of living cardiomyocytes. The system parameters of the dynamic model were identified with the cellular beating pattern measured by a scanning ion conductance microscope. The experiments were implemented with cardiomyocytes in one control group and two experimental groups with the drugs cytochalasin-D or nocodazole, to identify the system parameters of the model based on scanning ion conductance microscope measurements, measurement of the cellular Young's modulus with atomic force microscopy indentation, measurement of cellular contraction forces using the micro-pillar technique, and immunofluorescence staining and imaging of the cytoskeleton. The proposed mathematical model was both indirectly and qualitatively verified by the variation in cytoskeleton, beating amplitude, and contractility of cardiomyocytes among the control and the experimental groups, as well as directly and quantitatively validated by the simulation and the significant consistency of 90.5% in the comparison between the ratios of the Young's modulus and the equivalent comprehensive cellular elasticities of cells in the experimental groups to those in the control group. Apart from mechanical properties (mass, elasticity, and viscosity) of subcellular structures, other properties of cardiomyocytes have also been studied, such as the properties of the relative action potential pattern and cellular beating frequency. This work has potential implications for research on cytobiology, drug screening, mechanisms of the heart, and cardiomyocyte-based bio-syncretic robotics.

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Development of Miniaturized Walking Biological Machines

Cited by 204 publications

References 41 publications

A self-propelled biohybrid swimmer at low Reynolds number

A self-propelled biohybrid swimmer at low Reynolds number

Biomimicry, Biofabrication, and Biohybrid Systems: The Emergence and Evolution of Biological Design

Dynamic Model for Characterizing Contractile Behaviors and Mechanical Properties of a Cardiomyocyte

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