Building with biology: College features Raman and team's research

 

Miniature biological robots developed at Illinois are flexing their muscles. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a class of walking “bio-bots” powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses, giving researchers unprecedented command over their function. These tiny cell-based soft robotic devices could have a transformative impact on our ability to design machines and systems that can sense and respond to a range of complex environmental signals.

 

"If we can rebuild existing systems with cells, we can also design new systems that harness the innate dynamic abilities of cells to self-organize and respond to environmental cues," explains graduate student Ritu Raman, co-first author of a 2014 PNAS publication introducing the current generation of 3D printed bio-bots. "This idea of forward-engineering integrated cellular systems with multiple functionalities is the founding principle of bio-bots."