Synthetic organisms can self-replicate. The ability to reproduce is a striking leap forward in synthetic biology.
A team from the University of Vermont, Harvard University, and Tufts University used frog cells to build the Xenobots.
Their work began in 2020 after the first Xenobots were built. The team designed an algorithm that assembled countless cells together to build various biological machines.
The machine bodies were made using biological cellular material. The cells began to work together when they were activated. The skin cells began to form into bodies that could perform specific tasks, such as organizing themselves and pushing objects around.
The team has moved beyond the ability to perform simple robotic tasks.
Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, said in a press statement that they will spontaneously self-replicate with the right design.
The little robot swims around and gathers hundreds of single cells in their mouths, like in a video game. A new Xenobot pops up a few days later.
It is very difficult. It looks very simple, researcher Sam Kriegman said in the release.
It is natural to think that the little Xenobots will one day be responsible for a robotic uprising and the future hellscape of the "Terminator" franchise, but the biological machines are pretty harmless. In about seven days, Xenobots can be turned off, and biodegrade as any skin cell would. The team isn't looking to release Xenobots into the world to be robotic helpers. The idea is to study how their creation can lead to better and faster algorithms that can manipulate already living and functioning cells.
If we knew how to tell collections of cells to do what we wanted them to do, that would be the solution to traumatic injury, birth defects, cancer, and aging. We don't know how to predict and control what groups of cells are going to build, that's one of the problems There is a new platform for teaching.
Scientists are printing living organisms out of biological cells.
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