The image shows a Pac-Man-shaped organism beside its replication (green). (Image Credit: Douglas Blackiston and Sam Kriegman)
Back in January of 2020, Xenobots made quite a splash. Now they surprise again.
In 2020, scientists developed the world’s first living robots, called xenobots, which measure less than 1mm long and can repair and power themselves. Now, that same team engineered these bots to provide them with self-replication capabilities. This marks a breakthrough for health, the environment, and technology.
The machine-animal hybrids are made of African claw frogs’ skin and heart cells, which contain tiny cilia hairs that help them move inside a petri dish. The team added dye particles and silicone-coated iron beads to the dish and watched the xenobots move. They behaved similarly to bulldozers, pushing cells and piling them into place.
Afterward, the team repeated this process, adding more of the same cells to observe the xenobots’ reaction. The team then allowed the cell piles to mature over a few days and placed them in a separate dish to determine if they could move. These cells then became offspring that grew cilia and operated the same way as the original xenobots.
The AI-designed C-shaped cells push loose stem cells (white) into piles while moving around. (Image Credit: Douglas Blackiston and Sam Kriegman)
At first, the replication process occurred spontaneously, so the team utilized AI to produce a better shape for the xenobots, improving their control to replicate more consistently. Thus, the Pac-Man-shaped organism produced offspring with repeated succession.
The xenobots will stay in the petri dishes for now, but the team says the project could provide roboticists and biologists with insight into how some animals regenerate lost parts. This includes how humans can regenerate parts of their liver while salamanders regenerate limbs. Next, the team wants to integrate sensory organs into the xenobots, providing them with a way to see.
However, it’s still too early to predict how this breakthrough could play a role in any healthcare and environmental application. Their reproduction capability also extends the xenobots’ ability to perform certain tasks inside and outside the human body.
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