Meet xenobots, tiny machines made out of living parts

Popular Science ^ | April 17, 2023 | Charlotte Hu

[Twotone]

You may or may not have heard of xenobots, a kind of Frankenfrog creation that involves researchers turning frog embryo cells into tiny bio-machines that can move around, push or carry objects, and work together. These ephemeral beings were first made by a team of scientists from Tufts University and the University of Vermont in 2020.

The goal behind building these “bots” was to understand how cells communicate with one another. Here’s a breakdown of the hard facts behind how xenobots actually work, and what they are currently used for. What are xenobots?

A “living robot” can sound like a scary sci-fi term, but they are not anything like the sentient androids you may have seen on screen.

“At the most basic level, this is a platform or way to build with cells and tissues, the way we can build robots out of mechanical components,” says Douglas Blackiston, a senior scientist at Tufts University. “You can almost think of it as Legos, where you can combine different Legos together, and with the same set of blocks you can make a bunch of different things.”

But why would someone want to build robots out of living components instead of traditional materials, like metal and plastic? One advantage is that having a bio-robot of sorts means that it is biodegradable. In environmental applications, that means if the robot breaks, it won’t contaminate the environment with garbage like metal, batteries, or plastic. Researchers can also program xenobots to fall apart naturally at the end of their lives.

The building blocks for xenobots come from the eggs laid by the female African clawed frog, which goes by the scientific name Xenopus laevis.

Just like with a traditional robot, they need other essential components: a power source, a motor or actuator for movement, and sensors.

[BenLurkin]

What could possibly go wrong...

[SgtHooper]

Is that like a xenomorph!?