Podcast Summary
Exploring the Power of Platforms and Biology: Indeed saves time and delivers high-quality candidates for hiring, while Rocket Money helps manage finances and save money on subscriptions. The future of technology includes Anthrobots, made from human cells, with vast potential applications in healing and drug delivery.
When it comes to hiring, using a platform like Indeed can save time and provide high-quality candidates. Indeed, with over 350 million monthly visitors and advanced matching technology, can help streamline the hiring process and deliver the best matches compared to other job sites. Meanwhile, managing subscriptions can be a drain on finances. Rocket Money, a personal finance app, can help identify and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitor spending, and lower bills, saving users an average of $720 a year. In the realm of technology, the future holds exciting possibilities in manipulating and using biology, particularly in the form of Anthrobots, which are made from human cells and can be sculpted to perform various functions, including healing and drug delivery. This field is still in its infancy, but the potential applications are vast. So, whether you're looking to hire, manage your finances, or explore the latest advancements in technology, consider the power of platforms and biology to make your life easier and more efficient.
Understanding and merging engineering with natural morphogenesis: Synthetic morphogenesis combines engineering and science to create living architectures and structures that mimic nature's self-healing, environmental sensing, and complex form construction abilities.
Synthetic morphogenesis is an exciting new field that combines engineering and science to bring goal-oriented design to the natural process of morphogenesis, or the development of form in nature. By understanding how this process works in nature and merging it with human design, we can create living architectures and structures that mimic nature's unique abilities to self-heal, sense the environment, and construct complex forms. This approach has the potential to create amazing and impactful advancements for humankind, although there may be challenges to overcome. Nature's ability to build and repair itself is a significant advantage that technology has yet to fully replicate, and synthetic morphogenesis represents a new frontier in science and engineering that could lead to more robust and resilient structures.
Merging engineering with nature's self-construction abilities: Researchers create self-constructing biological robots, Xenobots, using extracted frog embryo cells, opening new possibilities for engineering with natural materials
Researchers are working on merging engineering principles with self-constructing and regenerative abilities found in nature to create new technologies, such as BioBots. This approach builds upon human-designed goals and engineering principles, but also incorporates nature's unique self-construction capabilities. Xenobots, the first fully cellular biological robots, represent a step forward in this field. Created using extracted frog embryo cells, these robots move and perform tasks without the need for synthetic scaffolds or materials. This research opens up exciting possibilities for creating self-constructing robots and structures using only natural materials, pushing the boundaries of engineering and biology. Stem cells, which were used to create xenobots, are crucial due to their high potential to develop into various tissues and structures.
Discovering the Incredible Plasticity of Embryonic Cells: Scientists have created xenobots from frog embryos by manipulating stem cells, revealing their incredible ability to transform and adapt into various tissues and shapes. This discovery holds potential for regenerative medicine and engineering.
Scientists have discovered the remarkable ability of embryonic cells to transform into various tissues and shapes. This plasticity allows for the creation of new structures and architectures, as seen in the development of xenobots from frog embryos. These xenobots are sculpted by carefully manipulating and nudging stem cells together, and can be influenced by environmental inputs. Although genetic engineering is another approach to synthetic morphogenesis, the morphological and anatomical plasticity of cells provides a unique and complementary perspective. This discovery holds immense potential for various fields, including regenerative medicine and engineering. In simpler terms, cells in an embryo have the incredible ability to transform into different tissues and shapes. By carefully manipulating and nudging these stem cells together, scientists have created xenobots with new shapes and functions. This process, known as sculpting, involves shaping multicellular aggregates, not individual cells. Xenobots can also be influenced by environmental inputs, such as notch inhibitors. While genetic engineering is another approach to creating synthetic organisms, the morphological plasticity of cells offers a unique perspective. This discovery is significant for fields like regenerative medicine and engineering.
Creating new life forms through biobots: Scientists have developed biobots, including xenobots and anthropots, made from natural cells that move and exhibit programmability. These biobots expand possibilities for medicine and morphology creation.
Scientists have created biobots, such as xenobots and anthropots, which are not organisms or robots in the traditional sense, but a new kind of stable morphological structure made from natural cells. These biobots exhibit programmability and can move on their own, with xenobots aggregating cells and anthropots self-constructing. Xenobots have shown a form of kinematic soft replication through cell aggregation, while anthropots build themselves from single human cells. The field of biobots uses the term "robot" due to their programmability, but there is ongoing discussion about the terminology. Biobots do not reproduce naturally, and anthropots do not create new bots through aggregation. This new technology opens up possibilities for medicine and expanding the range of morphologies we can create using evolved cells.
Ethical and legal questions in the intersection of science and engineering, particularly in synthetic biology: Synthetic biology's intersection with engineering presents complex ethical and legal dilemmas, such as creating multicellular structures using human cells and exploring alternative methods like synthetic morphogenesis, while respecting restrictions on manipulating human embryos.
The intersection of science and engineering, particularly in the field of synthetic biology, raises complex ethical and legal questions. For instance, the creation of multicellular structures using human cells, such as the SRobots project, involves engineering goals (creating a spheroid with cilia for mobility) as well as scientific inquiries (understanding the behavior and properties of structures from different kingdoms). Traditional synthetic biology approaches, like synthetic circuits, have limitations, and alternative methods like synthetic morphogenesis may offer new possibilities. However, these advancements come with ethical considerations and legal boundaries, such as restrictions on manipulating human embryos beyond a certain point. The tension between scientific discovery and engineering applications, as well as the potential implications of these advancements, highlight the importance of ongoing dialogue and careful consideration in this rapidly evolving field.
Exploring new approaches to synthetic morphogenesis beyond genetic circuits: Researchers are shifting focus from building complex tissue structures from scratch using genetic circuits to engineering cell environments to guide desired goals, making synthetic morphogenesis more achievable and efficient.
Synthetic biology researchers are exploring new approaches to synthetic morphogenesis, which is the creation of complex tissue structures, beyond using just genetic circuits. While genetic circuits have been successful in creating patterns in 2D and 3D spaces, they have not yet been able to generate large-scale, functional structures with symmetry breaking events, directionality, and axis, such as multicellular spheroids with moving cilia. Instead of trying to build everything from scratch, researchers are now considering leveraging what cells already know how to do and engineering their environments to nudge them towards the desired goals. This approach, which shifts the focus from a gene-centric view, has the potential to make synthetic morphogenesis more achievable and efficient.
Manipulating environmental and epigenetic factors to change organoid morphology: Researchers can create organoids that better mimic native tissues by understanding genetic makeup and manipulating environmental and epigenetic factors to achieve desired structures.
The development of complex structures like organoids involves understanding not just the genetic makeup but also the environmental and epigenetic factors at play. Researchers can manipulate these factors to change the final morphology of organoids. For instance, Mike's experiment with double-headed worms demonstrated how changing bioelectrical signatures could result in different morphologies. In the context of creating answerbots, researchers looked for cells in the human body that already knew how to make cilia and chose tracheal cells due to their availability and widespread research on lung diseases. They used traditional airway organoid methods to grow spheroids with cilia inside, but this was the opposite of their goal. Instead, they wanted to create organoids with cilia on the outside. By exploring existing methods and nudging them towards their engineering goals, researchers can create organoids that better mimic native tissues and help in better understanding and studying these tissues. The process involves identifying the necessary components and finding ways to manipulate them to create the desired structures.
Manipulating cell behavior to form interrobots in airway organoids: Researchers used cellular behaviors and morphogenesis to create interrobots from airway organoids, providing an economical and high-throughput alternative to traditional manufacturing methods.
By understanding the natural behaviors and morphogenetic functions of cells, researchers were able to manipulate the environment and chemical inputs to induce self-construction and eversion in airway organoids, resulting in the formation of interrobots in a matter of weeks. This approach leverages the power of biology's unique construction framework, offering economical and high-throughput advantages over traditional manufacturing methods. These interrobots are not programmed to perform specific tasks but can move around with cilia on the outside, demonstrating the potential of harnessing biological systems for design ends.
Discovering distinct movements in spheroids: Through observing unexpected behaviors of artificially created spheroids, researchers identified four categories of movements: circular, straight, arced, and random, revealing insights into how morphology relates to function and potentially manipulating their developmental trajectory.
While creating artificial structures, such as spheroids, with the goal of making them move around can be considered as a form of programming, the true excitement lies in observing their unexpected behaviors and categorizing the differences among them. This approach, inspired by biology, revealed that despite being similar in some ways, each spheroid exhibited distinct movements, leading to the discovery of four statistically significant categories: circular, straight, arced, and random. This finding opens up opportunities to explore how morphology relates to function and potentially manipulate the developmental trajectory of these structures to control their movements more precisely. The use of advanced techniques like 3D scanning and statistical analysis has been instrumental in gaining insights into the complex dynamics of this chaotic system.
Discovering Patterns in Anthropots: Morphology, Behavior, and Motility: Researchers identified three distinct anthropot categories based on morphology and behavior, each with unique motility patterns. These bots have a finite lifespan but may benefit nerve cells upon introduction to human neuronal tissue.
Through the use of confocal microscopy and analysis of anthropots, or microbots, researchers have discovered stable patterns in their morphology and behavior. These patterns result in three distinct categories: small, fully ciliated bots; larger, patchwork ciliated bots; and larger, unilaterally ciliated bots. Interestingly, there is a correlation between these morphologies and the bots' motility. The half-slated, half-bold bots move in circles, while the large, patchwork bots move in straight lines, and the small, fully ciliated bots do not move significantly due to their size. Furthermore, these anthropots have a finite lifespan and disintegrate after a certain period. Despite this, they have been found to have a potentially beneficial effect on nerve cells when introduced to human neuronal tissue. These findings open up possibilities for future research and potential applications in programming and biotechnology.
Exploring and healing with shape-shifting bots: Researchers use shape-shifting bots made from biocompatible materials to explore and characterize tissue structures, heal damaged neurons, and form larger structures for tissue repair. These bots can be enhanced with synthetic and genetic circuits for improved navigation and actuation.
Researchers have discovered that by using shape-shifting bots made from biocompatible materials, they can not only explore and characterize different tissue structures based on the bot's motility profile, but also use these bots to heal damaged neurons and even form larger, motile structures to bridge gaps in tissue. These findings open up exciting possibilities for morphogenetic engineering, allowing researchers to add synthetic circuits to the bots and expand their abilities without having to dedicate resources to programming the bots for morphology and function. The next step is to incorporate genetic circuits into these bots to enhance their navigation and actuation capabilities, potentially leading to more precise and effective therapeutic applications. Overall, this research represents a complementary approach to synthetic biology, leveraging the natural behaviors and properties of cells to create innovative solutions for tissue repair and regeneration.
Exploring the potential of nature's self-replicating properties for creating new structures and materials: Morphogenetic engineering could revolutionize industries like climate tech and sustainability by developing living drugs and living medicine, offering a shift from traditional inanimate chemicals, despite potential risks and concerns.
There is a potential for using nature's self-replicating and self-assembling properties to create new structures and materials, particularly in the fields of climate tech and sustainability. This concept, known as morphogenetic engineering, could lead to the development of living drugs and living medicine, offering a paradigm shift from traditional inanimate chemicals. While there are potential risks and concerns, such as off-target effects from genetic modifications, there are also strategies to mitigate these risks, such as kill switches and other safety mechanisms. Overall, this technology holds great promise for creating innovative solutions to various challenges in architecture, medicine, and beyond.
Exploring the Intersection of Robotics, Gene Editing, and Synthetic Biology: Researchers are building robots that can disintegrate and using genetic circuits to stay under the radar of the immune system, revolutionizing the 21st century with active design in biology. Young minds can contribute to this exciting field.
The intersection of robotics, gene editing, and synthetic biology is opening up new possibilities for creating unique and innovative solutions. By building robots that can disintegrate after completing tasks and incorporating genetic circuits, researchers are able to stay under the radar of the immune system and explore the active design medium of biology. This field is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to revolutionize the 21st century and beyond. As we continue to understand and map nature, we are discovering that it is not just a passive entity, but an active design medium. This is an exciting field for designers, engineers, and researchers to explore, and there are many opportunities for young minds to make significant contributions. Jazem Gubishkaya's work in this area is a testament to the potential of this field, and it is inspiring to see how much can be achieved by combining different disciplines. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, we can look forward to a future where biology is at the forefront of innovation.
