Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots
Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1907051116
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发表时间：
2019-10-01
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Saif, M. Taher A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Aydin, Onur;Zhang, Xiaotian;Saif, M. Taher A.
近年来，肌肉细胞与软机器人技术的结合导致了能够自由运动的生物混合机器的发展。目前仍未探索的一个主要前沿是这种肌肉驱动的生物混合机器的神经元驱动和控制。作为迈向这个目标的一步，我们在这里展示了一个由船上神经肌肉单元驱动的生物混合游泳者。游泳者的身体由一个独立的软支架、骨骼肌组织和含有运动神经元的光遗传干细胞衍生的神经丛组成。嵌入在细胞外基质中的成肌细胞在支架几何形状的引导下自组织成肌肉组织，所产生的肌肉组织与神经丛在原位共培养。运动神经元然后有选择地向肌肉延伸神经突起，并对其进行神经支配，形成功能性神经肌肉单位。基于这一初始结构，我们通过计算设计、优化并实现了由这些神经肌肉单元驱动的光敏性鞭毛游泳者。由神经刺激引起的周期性肌肉收缩，驱动时间不可逆的鞭毛动力学，从而为游泳者的自由向前运动提供推力。总而言之，这项工作展示了一个生物混合机器人实现神经肌肉驱动的例子，并说明了一条通向神经元使能生物混合机器的前向设计和控制的道路。
The integration of muscle cells with soft robotics in recent years has led to the development of biohybrid machines capable of untethered locomotion. A major frontier that currently remains unexplored is neuronal actuation and control of such muscle-powered biohybrid machines. As a step toward this goal, we present here a biohybrid swimmer driven by on-board neuromuscular units. The body of the swimmer consists of a free-standing soft scaffold, skeletal muscle tissue, and optogenetic stem cell-derived neural cluster containing motor neurons. Myoblasts embedded in extracellular matrix self-organize into a muscle tissue guided by the geometry of the scaffold, and the resulting muscle tissue is cocultured in situ with a neural cluster. Motor neurons then extend neurites selectively toward the muscle and innervate it, developing functional neuromuscular units. Based on this initial construct, we computationally designed, optimized, and implemented light-sensitive flagellar swimmers actuated by these neuromuscular units. Cyclic muscle contractions, induced by neural stimulation, drive time-irreversible flagellar dynamics, thereby providing thrust for untethered forward locomotion of the swimmer. Overall, this work demonstrates an example of a biohybrid robot implementing neuromuscular actuation and illustrates a path toward the forward design and control of neuron-enabled biohybrid machines.