Xenobot
 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (January 2020) |
| Xenobot | |
|---|---|
| Industry | Medicine |
| Dimensions | 0.04 inches wide |
| Fuel source | Nutrients |
| Self-propelled | Yes |
Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), are self-healing micro-robots.[1] A xenobot is a biological machine under 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) wide, small enough to travel inside human bodies. They are made of skin cells and heart cells, stem cells harvested from frog embryos.[2][3] University of Vermont & Tufts University scientists have created this living machine that one day might safely deliver drugs inside the human body—and pave the way for understanding how to form organs for regenerative medicine.[4][5]
Xenobots can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food and work together in groups, can heal on their own and keep working.[6]
Applications
Xenobots could potentially be used to clean radioactive wastes, collect microplastics in the oceans, carry medicine into human bodies or travel to human arteries to remove plaque. Xenobots can survive in aqueous environments without additional nutrients for weeks, thus making them suitable for internal administration of medicines.[7]
References
- ^ "Meet the xenobot: world's first living, self-healing robots created from frog stem cells". WREG.com. 2020-01-14.
- ^ "Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028.
- ^ Kriegman, Sam; Blackiston, Douglas; Levin, Michael; Bongard, Josh (13 January 2020). "A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1910837117. ISSN 0027-8424. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "New Living Machines Are Created in the Lab".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Team Builds the First Living Robots".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Scientists created a microscopic robot – and it's alive". 10NEWS.
- ^ "Scientists have built the world's first living, self-healing robots". CNN.