Kriegman S, Blackiston D, Levin M, Bongard J

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jan 13. pii: 201910837. doi:10.1073/pnas.1910837117

A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms.

Uses an “evolutionary search method that, unlike learning methods, enables the design of the machine’s physical structure along with its behavior”. “Pluripotent stem cells are first harvested from blastula stage Xenopus laevis embryos, dissociated, and pooled to achieve the desired number of cells. Following an incubation period, the aggregated tissue is then manually shaped by subtraction using a combination of microsurgery forceps and a 13-μm wire tip cautery electrode, producing a biological approximation of the simulated design. Further, contractile tissue can be layered into the organism through the harvesting and embedding of Xenopus cardiac progenitor cells, an embryonically derived cell type which naturally develops into cardiomyocytes (heart muscle) and produces contractile waves at specific locations in the resultant shaped form.”