Robotic Skeleton Grows Stretchable Human Cells! Can The New Tissue Engineering Method Help Patients?

A robotic skeleton was able to grow human cells. But, this one is quite different from the existing methods used to generate body tissues artificially.

One of the most interesting things about this new tissue engineering method is that the machine created stretchable human cells.

"Humanoid robots offer the prospect of providing physiologically-relevant mechanical stimulation to grafts and implants which may expedite their clinical deployment," said researchers in their new study.

The research study titled "Humanoid robots to mechanically stress human cells grown in soft bioreactors" was published in the Nature Communications Engineering journal on May 26.

Robotic Skeleton Grows Stretchable Human Cells!

According to BGR's latest report, the new tissue engineering method relied on a robotic skeleton (shoulder joint) to routinely exercise human cells.

The movements made by the machine are comparable to the common actions of a real human being. Involved scientists used a bioreactor with biodegradable string filaments, which can stretch between the two anchor points.

These filaments played a crucial part in the new study since they housed the human cells. Experts also filled the strings with nutrient-rich liquid to ensure that the human tissued would grow properly.

Thanks to this, the robotic skeleton encouraged growth in the human cells in just two weeks.

Can This Be Applied in Medical Operations

For the past few years, artificially-grown human tissues are commonly contained in static machines. Because of this, the generated cells commonly don't have the ability to stretch.

With the new tissue engineering method, this can soon change. However, it still needs a lot of work before it can actually be applied in actual human medical operations.

Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy of the University of Oxford's Botnar Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences explained that it is still hard to conclude that their method is efficient with other tissue engineering techniques.

On the other hand, robotic buoys created by a group of researchers are expected to protect whales from colliding ships.

Meanwhile, Ford's KUKA-built robots can run carbon 3D printers, even without human interactions.

For more news updates about robots and other kinds of machines, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by: Griffin Davis