Artificial nerve cells made from biocompatible materials have been made in a lab for the first time. The innovation may one day be used in synthetic tissues to repair organs such as the heart or the eyes.
Bayley at the University of Oxford and his colleagues devised a synthetic material that can act human neuron.
Made from hydrogel, the artificial neurons are about 0.7 across – about 700 times wider than a human neuron, but similar to.
A growing number of scientists and engineers exploring new ways to build things with cells. Some groups combine living cells with artificial components to create new devices. Others have used muscle or heart tissue to create machines that walk on their own. Bots can design synthetic materials for testing new drugs or medicine. Still other emerging machines mimic the actions of cells — even without using living tissue.
These bots can move on their own and heal themselves after small injuries. They can also complete tasks, like working together to push objects from one place to another. In late November, his team even showed that the robots can now replicate, or make copies of themselves. The robots are made from cells of the African clawed frog.
In some cases, the answer is fairly obvious. If engineers want machines that can function in the human body, for example, then they will likely want to use human cells. If they want to send living machines to the bottom of the ocean or into outer space, human (or even mammal) cells may not be very useful. “We don’t do very well there,” she says. “If we keep building with cells similar to ours, then they won’t do well there, either.”
Other situations aren’t so clear-cut. To find the best pollution cleaners, for example, scientists will have to test different bots to see how well they swim, survive and thrive in toxic environments.
Bashir, at Illinois, highlights another complication. Because they’re made of living cells, these machines raise questions about what it means to be an organism. “They appear like a living entity, even though they do not represent life,” he says. The machines can’t learn or adapt — yet — and they can’t reproduce. When the xenobots run out of food that’s stored in the cells, they die and decompose.
But future bio bots might be able to learn and adapt. And as AI becomes more powerful, computers might design new organisms that appear truly lifelike. Tomorrow’s programs, says Blackiston, could speed up evolution. “Should a computer be able to design life?” he asks. “And what would it come up with?” People also need to ask: “Are we comfortable with that? Do we want Google designing life forms?”
Conversations about what people should and shouldn’t do will be an important part of future research, says Bashir
Making rules about which cells to use and what to do with them will be critical to creating beneficial devices. “Is it living? And is it life?” he asks. “We have to really think about that, and we have to be careful.
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