ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Three-dimensionally printed biological machines powered by skeletal muscle.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 128 papers.
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Who cites it
128 citing papers in PubMed, 434 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wireless bioelectronic control architectures for muscle-powered biohybrid robotic systems.APL bioengineering · 2026Article
- Co-optimized volumetric muscle design for large dynamic deformations in versatile biohybrid robots.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A Biomimetic 3D Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissue for Modeling Biological and Functional Hallmarks of Aging.Small science · 2026Article
- Manufacturing, Cell Regulation, and Coculture Strategies for Vascularization and Neural Innervation of Skeletal Muscle Tissue.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- 2D Skeletal Muscle Thin Film Actuators Enhance Efficiency of Biohybrid Robots.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Physiological and functional characterization for high-throughput optogenetic skeletal muscle exercise assays.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Article
- Biohybrid Robots with Embedded Conductive Fibers for Actuation, Sensing, and Closed-loop Control.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Fast-swimming biohybrid OstraBot with self-trained high-strength muscles.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Biohybrid Tendons Enhance the Power-to-Weight Ratio and Modularity of Muscle-Powered Robots.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Fibrillar Bundles as Fibrous Filler Materials for Attaining Cell Anisotropy in Bioprinting.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Evaluation of material effects on three-dimensional cultured skeletal muscle cells for biohybrid robots.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2026Article
- Vat Photopolymerization of Smart Polymers for Biomedical Applications.ACS applied polymer materials · 2025Review
- Modal analysis and optimization of swimming active filaments.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Article
- Optogenetic neuromuscular actuation of a miniature electronic biohybrid robot.Science robotics · 2025Article
- Tetanus-driven biohybrid multijoint robots powered by muscle rings with enhanced contractile force.Science advances · 2025Article
- Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots.ACS nano · 2025Review
- Development of an electrical current stimulator for controlling biohybrid machines.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Leveraging microtopography to pattern multi-oriented muscle actuators.Biomaterials science · 2025Article
- Advancing biohybrid robotics: Innovations in contraction models, control techniques, and applications.Biophysics reviews · 2025Review
- Actuating Extracellular Matrices Decouple the Mechanical and Biochemical Effects of Muscle Contraction on Motor Neurons.Advanced healthcare materials · 2025Article
68 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Combining biological components, such as cells and tissues, with soft robotics can enable the fabrication of biological machines with the ability to sense, process signals, and produce force. An intuitive demonstration of a biological machine is one that can produce motion in response to controllable external signaling. Whereas cardiac cell-driven biological actuators have been demonstrated, the requirements of these machines to respond to stimuli and exhibit controlled movement merit the use of skeletal muscle, the primary generator of actuation in animals, as a contractile power source. Here, we report the development of 3D printed hydrogel "bio-bots" with an asymmetric physical design and powered by the actuation of an engineered mammalian skeletal muscle strip to result in net locomotion of the bio-bot. Geometric design and material properties of the hydrogel bio-bots were optimized using stereolithographic 3D printing, and the effect of collagen I and fibrin extracellular matrix proteins and insulin-like growth factor 1 on the force production of engineered skeletal muscle was characterized. Electrical stimulation triggered contraction of cells in the muscle strip and net locomotion of the bio-bot with a maximum velocity of ∼ 156 μm s(-1), which is over 1.5 body lengths per min. Modeling and simulation were used to understand both the effect of different design parameters on the bio-bot and the mechanism of motion. This demonstration advances the goal of realizing forward-engineered integrated cellular machines and systems, which can have a myriad array of applications in drug screening, programmable tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomimetic machine design.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.