UH OH
‘Amazing science’: researchers find xenobots can give rise to offspringXenobots are synthetic lifeforms made by cells from frog embryos and assembling them into clusters
PACMAN IN REVERSE
Xenobots. The parent organism in red next to an offspring cell coloured green.
Photograph: Wyss Institute
Nicola Davis
THE GUARDIAN
Mon 29 Nov 2021
Some species do it in pairs, some without knowing the other parties involved, and some even do it on their own: when it comes to replication, nature is nothing if not versatile.
Now researchers say they have found that clusters of frog cells can undergo a form of replication never before seen in plants or animals. The spherical clumps, known as xenobots, can give rise to “offspring” by sweeping up loose cells and swashing them into yet more clusters.
“These things move around in the dish and make copies of themselves,” said Prof Josh Bongard, of the University of Vermont, a co-author of the research.
Xenobots were first announced last year, and are what are known as “living robots”– synthetic lifeforms made by taking a few thousand cells from frog embryos and assembling them into clusters about 1mm in size.
Xenobots have no digestive system or neurons, and naturally fall apart after about two weeks. Bongard said the xenobots in the current study could propel themselves around using hair-like projections called cilia.
“They definitely do not grow into frogs, they actually keep the form that we impose on them. And they look and act in ways very different from normal frog,” he said.
One of those ways is the production of offspring. Anything that makes a copy of itself can be said to replicate, Bongard noted. But plants and animals have previously been found to do this by reproduction – mechanisms that range from the asexual process of budding to giving birth.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bongard and colleagues report that xenobots take a very different approach called kinematic self-replication – a process previously seen for molecules but not organisms.
“Kinematic self-replication in molecules was definitely important at the start of life on Earth. But we don’t know whether this form of replication, which we now see in groups of cells, played a role in the life’s origins,” Bongard said.
The team made their discovery by watching the actions of xenobots in petri dishes containing room-temperature pondwater and loose cells from frog embryos.
“[The xenobots] move around in the dish in this corkscrew pattern and they crash into other loose cells, and sort of just smush and push them [into piles],” Bongardsaid.
The team found that as the cells are sticky, they can – if a pile is large enough – form a new, moving cluster over five days: a child xenobot.
But there is a hitch. “It turns out that these xenobots will replicate once, one generation, they will make children. But the children are too small and weak to make grandchildren,” said Bongard.
Using artificial intelligence, the researchers found that if the xenobots were formed into certain shapes, such as that of the video game character Pac-Man, replication continued for further generations.
Bongard said the hope was that self-replicating machines could eventually be developed to do useful work, with the team’s computer simulations suggesting the xenobots could fix electrical circuits.
“These are very small, biodegradable and biocompatible machines, and they’re perfectly happy in freshwater,” he said, adding that near-term applications could include collecting microplastics from waterways.
In the long-term, biobots made from our own cells could even be used in the body to remove the need for surgery, said Bongard.
Prof Mark Miodownik, the director of the Institute of Making at University College London, welcomed the research, saying it was “amazing science and another step closer to animate materials”.
Nicola Davis
THE GUARDIAN
Mon 29 Nov 2021
Some species do it in pairs, some without knowing the other parties involved, and some even do it on their own: when it comes to replication, nature is nothing if not versatile.
Now researchers say they have found that clusters of frog cells can undergo a form of replication never before seen in plants or animals. The spherical clumps, known as xenobots, can give rise to “offspring” by sweeping up loose cells and swashing them into yet more clusters.
“These things move around in the dish and make copies of themselves,” said Prof Josh Bongard, of the University of Vermont, a co-author of the research.
Xenobots were first announced last year, and are what are known as “living robots”– synthetic lifeforms made by taking a few thousand cells from frog embryos and assembling them into clusters about 1mm in size.
Xenobots have no digestive system or neurons, and naturally fall apart after about two weeks. Bongard said the xenobots in the current study could propel themselves around using hair-like projections called cilia.
“They definitely do not grow into frogs, they actually keep the form that we impose on them. And they look and act in ways very different from normal frog,” he said.
One of those ways is the production of offspring. Anything that makes a copy of itself can be said to replicate, Bongard noted. But plants and animals have previously been found to do this by reproduction – mechanisms that range from the asexual process of budding to giving birth.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bongard and colleagues report that xenobots take a very different approach called kinematic self-replication – a process previously seen for molecules but not organisms.
“Kinematic self-replication in molecules was definitely important at the start of life on Earth. But we don’t know whether this form of replication, which we now see in groups of cells, played a role in the life’s origins,” Bongard said.
The team made their discovery by watching the actions of xenobots in petri dishes containing room-temperature pondwater and loose cells from frog embryos.
“[The xenobots] move around in the dish in this corkscrew pattern and they crash into other loose cells, and sort of just smush and push them [into piles],” Bongardsaid.
The team found that as the cells are sticky, they can – if a pile is large enough – form a new, moving cluster over five days: a child xenobot.
But there is a hitch. “It turns out that these xenobots will replicate once, one generation, they will make children. But the children are too small and weak to make grandchildren,” said Bongard.
Using artificial intelligence, the researchers found that if the xenobots were formed into certain shapes, such as that of the video game character Pac-Man, replication continued for further generations.
Bongard said the hope was that self-replicating machines could eventually be developed to do useful work, with the team’s computer simulations suggesting the xenobots could fix electrical circuits.
“These are very small, biodegradable and biocompatible machines, and they’re perfectly happy in freshwater,” he said, adding that near-term applications could include collecting microplastics from waterways.
In the long-term, biobots made from our own cells could even be used in the body to remove the need for surgery, said Bongard.
Prof Mark Miodownik, the director of the Institute of Making at University College London, welcomed the research, saying it was “amazing science and another step closer to animate materials”.
WHAT ARE XENOBOTS? FIRST LIVING ROBOTS CAN SELF-REPLICATE AS PER SCIENTISTS
Filiz Mustafa
Xenobots are back in the media spotlight after a research found that the first living robots can reproduce. So, what are they?
The living robots have made headlines in the tech and science field after a study was published this week.
WHAT ARE XENOBOTS?
Xenobots are the world’s first self-reproducing living robots, according to a study published in the scientific journal PNAS.
They are formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog and were first introduced in 2020 when research saw that they can move and group together.
As per a video from Vermont University, Xenobots are “computer-designed organisms gather single cells inside a Pac-Man-shaped “mouth”—and release Xenobot “babies” that look and move like themselves”.
Scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have teamed up to create the research.
The Xenobots are an entirely new form of biological reproduction, as per scientists, and are different from any animal or plant known to the science world to this date.
Professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University Michael Levin, who served as co-lead in the study, said: “I was astounded by it. Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce.”
Lead author of the research and computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont Josh Bongard explained more about the Xenobots and said:
“Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it’s not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people.
“In that way it’s a robot but it’s also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell.”
Filiz Mustafa
Xenobots are back in the media spotlight after a research found that the first living robots can reproduce. So, what are they?
The living robots have made headlines in the tech and science field after a study was published this week.
WHAT ARE XENOBOTS?
Xenobots are the world’s first self-reproducing living robots, according to a study published in the scientific journal PNAS.
They are formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog and were first introduced in 2020 when research saw that they can move and group together.
As per a video from Vermont University, Xenobots are “computer-designed organisms gather single cells inside a Pac-Man-shaped “mouth”—and release Xenobot “babies” that look and move like themselves”.
WHO IS BEHIND THE STUDY?
Scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have teamed up to create the research.
The Xenobots are an entirely new form of biological reproduction, as per scientists, and are different from any animal or plant known to the science world to this date.
Professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University Michael Levin, who served as co-lead in the study, said: “I was astounded by it. Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce.”
Lead author of the research and computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont Josh Bongard explained more about the Xenobots and said:
“Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it’s not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people.
“In that way it’s a robot but it’s also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell.”
HOW TO FIND MORE ABOUT THE STUDY
If you want to find more about the study, you can follow University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University on Twitter.
Or read the full research from this paper here.
If you want to find more about the study, you can follow University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University on Twitter.
Or read the full research from this paper here.
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