GCR: Collaborative Research: Micro-bio-genetics for Programmable Organoid Formation

该项目旨在定义一个动态控制、机器人辅助生物设计的新领域。一个由微型机器人学、机器学习和合成生物学专家组成的汇聚研究团队将专注于开发一种全新的方法来分析和复制哺乳动物组织中复杂的细胞模式。这项研究不仅将产生可应用于多个学科的新的生物学规则、合成生物学工具和微观机器人学，而且还将创造一种新的体外天然类肝脏有机化合物，用于生物和医学研究。这项工作将为研究其他合成人体组织的创造和修复打开大门。研究团队将产生多尺度、多细胞模式，并利用血管系统合成3D模式，以产生类似于自然的器官。为了能够将图案设计问题映射到优化问题，研究人员将定义新的机器学习技术来分类和量化细胞图案。为了能够控制引导细胞组织和分化过程的生物兼容机器人，他们计划开发利用并远远超过当前微机器人技术的新技术。这将使人们能够深入了解关于细胞分化以及空间组织和功能之间的联系的基本科学问题。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims at defining a new area of dynamically-controlled, robot-assisted biological design. A convergent research team consisting of experts in microrobotics, machine learning, and synthetic biology will focus on developing a radically new approach towards analyzing and replicating intricate cellular patterning in mammalian tissues. Not only will this research result in new biological rules, synthetic biology tools, and microrobotics that can be applied in numerous disciplines, it will also create a new in vitro native-like liver organoid for biological and medical research. The work will open the door for research into the creation and repair of other synthetic human organs.The research team will generate multiscale, multicellular patterns and synthesize 3D patterns with vasculature to produce native-like organs. To enable mapping of pattern design problems to optimization problems, the researchers will define novel machine learning techniques to classify and quantify cellular patterns. To enable control of bio-compatible robots that guide cell organization and differentiation processes, they plan to develop novel technologies that leverage and far exceed current microrobotics. This will enable insights into fundamental scientific questions about cell differentiation and connections between spatial organization and function.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.