Researchers at Tufts University and Harvard University have created “biobots”, self-propelled biological robots the width of a human hair or smaller and made with human tracheal cells, with the purpose of healing damaged cells. Through the research, the team noticed the biobots could heal different types of cells. The cells from which these biobots are created are not genetically modified, and the biobots have many potential uses, from healing damaged neural cells, to clearing plaque from the arteries of the heart. This can be exciting news for patients looking for ways to heal their bodies.

The research team first created Xenobots, made from amphibian embryonic cells, and wondered if this could help them to build the Anthrobots, the technical name for the biobots. The biobots have a lifespan of 45-60 days. The team designed a process to create these biobots, and noted the creation process can be “scaled up”, so many bots can be created at one time.

The biobots have four different movement types: circular, linear, curvilinear, and eclectic. The circular biobots tended to move in the same location with other circular biobots, while the linear and curvilinear moved through multiple locations. The eclectic biobots moved in many observational areas and did not stay with similar bots as much as the other types. They exhibited movement types of the other three groups, in a random way, but as their life cycle progressed they tended to behave like one of the other three groups more regularly.

It will be interesting to see further developments in cellular repair by biobots!

Source 1 – QPS
Source 2 – Neuroscience News
Read the original research paper here