Comprehensive Research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market Report 2026 | Astellas Pharma Inc/ Ocata Therapeutics ,STEMCELL Technologies…

This report provides detailed business profiles, project feasibility analysis, SWOT analysis, and several other details about the key companies operating in the Global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market, presents a detailed analytical account of the markets competitive landscape. The report also overviews the impact of recent developments in the market and the markets future growth prospects.

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This market research report on analyzes the growth prospects for the key vendors operating in this market space including Astellas Pharma Inc/ Ocata Therapeutics ,STEMCELL Technologies ,BIOTIME ,INC ,Thermo Fisher Scientific ,CellGenix

The global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) market report also indicates a narrowed decisive summary of the global market. Along with this, multiple factors which have affected the advancement and improvement in a positive as well as negative manner are also studied in the report. On the contrary, the various factors which will be acting as the opportunities for the development and growth of the Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) market in the forecasted period are also mentioned.

Competitive landscape of global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market has been studied to understand the competitive products and services across the globe. For effective global regional outlook analysts of the report examines global regions such as, North America, Latin America, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and India on the basis of productivity.

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Key questions answered in the report include:

What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2027?

What are the key factors driving the global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market?

What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in the global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market?

Trending factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, Europe, and MEA.

What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market?

Finally, all aspects of the Global Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market are quantitatively as well qualitatively assessed to study the Global as well as regional market comparatively. This market study presents critical information and factual data about the market providing an overall statistical study of this market on the basis of market drivers, limitations and its future prospects.

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Comprehensive Research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells (HESC) Market Report 2026 | Astellas Pharma Inc/ Ocata Therapeutics ,STEMCELL Technologies...

Stem Cell Therapy Market Anticipated to Grow at a Significant Pace by 2020 – The Trusted Chronicle

Stem cells are most vital cells found in both humans and non-human animals. Stem cells are also known as centerpiece of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicines have capability to grow new cells and replace damaged and dead cells.

Stem cell is the precursors of all cells in the human body. It has the ability to replicate itself and repair and replace other damaged tissues in the human body. In addition, stem cell based therapies are used in the treatment of several chronic diseases such as cancer and blood disorders.

The globalstem cell therapymarket is categorized based on various modes of treatment and by therapeutic applications. The treatment segment is further sub-segmented into autologous stem cell therapy and allogeneic stem cell therapy.

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The application segment includes metabolic diseases, eye diseases, immune system diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, central nervous system disorders, cardiovascular diseases and wounds and injuries.

In terms of geographic, North America dominates the global stem cell therapy market due to increased research activities on stem cells. The U.S. represents the largest market for stem cell therapy followed by Canada in North America.

However, Asia is expected to show high growth rates in the next five years in global stem cell therapy market due to increasing population. In addition, increasing government support by providing funds is also supporting in growth of the stem cell therapy market in Asia. China and India are expected to be the fastest growing stem cell therapy markets in Asia.

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In recent time, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing funds from government organizations are some of the major drivers for global stem cell therapy market. In addition, rising awareness about stem cell therapies and increasing focus on stem cell research are also supporting in growth of global stem cell therapy market.

However, less developed research infrastructure for stem cell therapies and ethical issues related to embryonic stem cells are some of the major restraints for global stem cell therapy market. In addition, complexity related with the preservation of stem cell also obstructs the growth of global stem cell therapy market.

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Market Players

Some of the major companies operating in the global stem cell therapy market are :

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Stem Cell Therapy Market Anticipated to Grow at a Significant Pace by 2020 - The Trusted Chronicle

What I Learned About Marriage as a Survivor of Abuse – SWAAY

With so many groundbreaking medical advances being revealed to the world every single day, you would imagine there would be some advancement on the plethora of many female-prevalent diseases (think female cancers, Alzheimer's, depression, heart conditions etc.) that women are fighting every single day.

For Anna Villarreal and her team, there frankly wasn't enough being done. In turn, she developed a method that diagnoses these diseases earlier than traditional methods, using a pretty untraditional method in itself: through your menstrual blood.

Getting from point A to point B wasn't so easy though. Villarreal was battling a disease herself and through that experience. I wondered if there was a way to test menstrual blood for female specific diseases," she says. "Perhaps my situation could have been prevented or at least better managed. This led me to begin researching menstrual blood as a diagnostic source. For reasons the scientific and medical community do not fully understand, certain diseases impact women differently than men. The research shows that clinical trials have a disproportionate focus on male research subjects despite clear evidence that many diseases impact more women than men."

There's also no denying that gap in women's healthcare in clinical research involving female subjects - which is exactly what inspired Villarreal to launch her company, LifeStory Health. She says that, with my personal experience everything was brought full circle."

There is a challenge and a need in the medical community for more sex-specific research. I believe the omission of females as research subjects is putting women's health at risk and we need to fuel a conversation that will improve women's healthcare.,"

-Anna Villarreal

Her brand new biotech company is committed to changing the women's healthcare market through technology, innovation and vocalization and through extensive research and testing. She is working to develop the first ever, non-invasive, menstrual blood diagnostic and has partnered with a top Boston-area University on research and has won awards from The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering and Northeastern University's RISE.

How does it work exactly? Proteins are discovered in menstrual blood that can quickly and easily detect, manage and track diseases in women, resulting in diseases that can be earlier detected, treated and even prevented in the first place. The menstrual blood is easy to collect and since it's a relatively unexplored diagnostic it's honestly a really revolutionary concept, too.

So far, the reactions of this innovative research has been nothing but excitement. The reactions have been incredibly positive." she shares with SWAAY. Currently, menstrual blood is discarded as bio waste, but it could carry the potential for new breakthroughs in diagnosis. When I educate women on the lack of female subjects used in research and clinical trials, they are surprised and very excited at the prospect that LifeStory Health may provide a solution and the key to early detection."

To give a doctor's input, and a little bit more of an explanation as to why this really works, Dr. Pat Salber, MD, and Founder of The Doctor Weighs In comments: researchers have been studying stem cells derived from menstrual blood for more than a decade. Stem cells are cells that have the capability of differentiating into different types of tissues. There are two major types of stem cells, embryonic and adult. Adult stem cells have a more limited differentiation potential, but avoid the ethical issues that have surrounded research with embryonic stem cells. Stem cells from menstrual blood are adult stem cells."

These stem cells are so important when it comes to new findings. Stem cells serve as the backbone of research in the field of regenerative medicine the focus which is to grow tissues, such as skin, to repair burn and other types of serious skin wounds.

A certain type of stem cell, known as mesenchymal stem cells (MenSCs) derived from menstrual blood has been found to both grow well in the lab and have the capability to differentiate in various cell types, including skin. In addition to being used to grow tissues, their properties can be studied that will elucidate many different aspects of cell function," Dr. Salber explains.

To show the outpour of support for her efforts and this major girl power research, Villarreal remarks, women are volunteering their samples happily report the arrival of their periods by giving samples to our lab announcing de-identified sample number XXX arrived today!" It's a far cry from the stereotype of when it's that time of the month."

How are these collections being done? Although it might sound odd to collect menstrual blood, plastic cups have been developed to use in the collection process. This is similar to menstrual products, called menstrual cups, that have been on the market for many years," Dr. Salber says.

Equally shocking and innovative, this might be something that becomes more common practice in the future. And according to Dr. Salber, women may be able to not only use the menstrual blood for early detection, but be able to store the stem cells from it to help treat future diseases. Companies are working to commercialize the use of menstrual blood stem cells. One company, for example, is offering a patented service to store menstrual blood stem cells for use in tissue generation if the need arises."

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What I Learned About Marriage as a Survivor of Abuse - SWAAY

Stem Cell Therapy Market Current Trends and Future Growth Dagoretti News – Dagoretti News

Stem Cell Therapy Market

MARKET INTRODUCTION

Stem cell therapy is a technique which uses stem cells for the treatment of various disorders. Stem cell therapy is capable of curing broad spectrum of disorders ranging from simple to life threatening. These stem cells are obtained from different sources, such as, adipose tissue, bone marrow, embryonic stem cell and cord blood among others. Stem cell therapy is enables to treat more than 70 disorders, including degenerative as well as neuromuscular disorders. The ability of a stem cell to renew itself helps in replacing the damaged areas in the human body.

MARKET DYNAMICSIncrease in the number of stem cell banking facilities and rising awareness on the benefits of stem cell for curing various disorders are expected to drive the market during the forecast period. Rise in number of regulations to promote stem cell therapy and increase in number of funds for research in developing countries are expected to offer growth opportunities to the market during the coming years.

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The key players influencing the market are:

This report contains:

The stem cell therapy market is segmented based on type as, adult stem cell, embryonic stem cell induced pluripotent stem cell and others. The adult stem cells segment is further segmented as hematopoietic, umbilical cord, neuronal and mesenchymal stem cells. Based on treatment, the market is categorized as allogeneic and autologous. The market is categorized by application as, muscoskeletal, dermatology, cardiology, drug discovery & development and others.

Stem Cell Therapy Market Global Analysis to 2027 is an expert compiled study which provides a holistic view of the market covering current trends and future scope with respect to product/service, the report also covers competitive analysis to understand the presence of key vendors in the companies by analyzing their product/services, key financial facts, details SWOT analysis and key development in last three years. Further chapter such as industry landscape and competitive landscape provides the reader with recent company level insights covering mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations, new product developments/strategies taking place across the ecosystem. The chapters also evaluate the key vendors by mapping all the relevant products and services to exhibit the ranking/ position of top 5 key vendors.

Stem Cell Therapy Market is a combination of qualitative as well as quantitative analysis which can be broken down into 40% and 60% respectively. Market estimation and forecasts are presented in the report for the overall global market from 2018 2027, considering 2018 as the base year and 2018 2027 forecast period. Global estimation is further broken down by segments and geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America covering major 16 countries across the mentioned regions. The qualitative contents for geographical analysis will cover market trends in each region and country which includes highlights of the key players operating in the respective region/country, PEST analysis of each region which includes political, economic, social and technological factors influencing the growth of the market.

Report Spotlights

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Stem Cell Therapy Market Current Trends and Future Growth Dagoretti News - Dagoretti News

Memphis Meats raises $161m to build its cell-based meat platform: ‘We have a pretty clear path to bringing prices down to cost parity’ -…

The Series B round led by SoftBank Group, Norwest and Temasek and supported by Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Threshold Ventures, Cargill, Tyson Foods, Finistere, Future Ventures, Kimbal Musk, Fifty Years, CPT Capital, KBW Ventures and Vulcan Capital will enable Memphis Meats to reach a historic milestone of bringing its products to consumers, said the Berkeley-based firm.

It also opens doors in Asia, a strategically valuable market for cell-based meat, added the company, which has now raised more than $180m since its launch in 2015.

This signifies our shift from a company focused on research to a company focused on bringing products to consumers, David Kay, senior manager of communications and operations told FoodNavigator-USA.

Memphis Meats has not announced a date for product launch, but will likely begin with premium-priced products in restaurants, which are great places to engage in meaningful conversations with chefs and consumers and get useful feedback, said Steve Myrick,VP of Operations.

"We have been very careful to develop our production system so we can produce multiple types of meat from multiple species on the same equipment, so the pilot plant will be animal agnostic. It may produce chicken in one run and beef the next. As to what comes to market first, it's still an open question for us. We've prototyped beef, chicken and duck, and we've worked on other things we haven't announced."

Asked about the price tag for the first wave of products, he said: "We believe we have a pretty clear path to bringing prices down to essentially conventional cost parity, and that will definitely take some time and some very meaningful scale above and beyond what we will be able to do in the pilot plant.

"That said, we don't intend to wait until we are price parity before we bring anything to consumers, because we think it is very important to have product out in the world and start collecting feedback and start educating consumers about what this is and why they should care about it.We believe we have a pretty clear path to bringing prices down to essentially conventional cost parity [with meat from slaughtered animals].

"I think we will bring products to market initially at prices that are at a premium to many other meat producers but hopefully not a very extreme one."

As for consumer sentiment around cell-based meat, survey findings can vary widely depending on how questions are phrased, but he added: "Most of the research has shown two thirds of consumers with a willingness to try or buy and we think that's a really attractive baseline number [given that research also shows enthusiam tends to increase the more educated consumers are on this topic]."

As to what investors were looking for in this round, Myricksaid they were focused on Memphis Meats' ability to prove its production system was scalable and capable of producing a consistent product, coupled with proof that costs were coming down in a meaningful way.

"We really showed that we had a clear path as we increased scale to bringing costs down to something that consumers will be able to afford."

When it comes to intellectual property, he said, "We think that we've done innovative work across three separate areas of our production system: the cells themselves, the cell culture feed or media, and the production system - the hardware in which we're producing meat, and across all three of those there is potential to protect our work through both patents and trade secrets."

Most cell-based meat startups have developed prototypes at the lab-scale, but when it comes to commercial viability, they need cell lines that can replicate/proliferate extensively or even indefinitely (without having to keep going back to the original source) and differentiate into multiple cells types such as muscle, fat and connective tissue. They also need a production process that enables these cells to grow rapidly, and an affordable growth medium that doesnt utilize fetal bovine serum (FBS), a byproduct of the livestock industry.

Myrick would not provide details on how Memphis Meats has brought down the cost ofFBS-freegrowth media, but added: "We've explored a number of strategies for understanding what FBS does in our process and then replacing some of the key components of that with components that are detached from slaughter."

Asked about the production process, VP of product and regulation Eric Schulze said the initial cell proliferation phase and the next differentiation phase could be conducted in the same vessel or in separate vessels, although the company is not providing details of its chosen approach at this stage.

Similarly, the different cell types (fat, muscle, connective tissue etc) can be grown separately and then combined at the processing stage at the end, or they can be grown together, he said. "We've explored both [approaches]and we use both regularly in our processes."

Quizzed on whether the company was using edible or biodegradable scaffolds upon which to seed cells in order to create more structured or 'steak-like' products, he said: "The cells themselves produce a scaffold and we primarily rely on the cells to do that but we continue to explore all options on the table."

Asked whether the company was using induced pluripotent stem cells (which behave like embryonic stem cells in that they can replicate/proliferate extensively without having to keep going back to the original source and differentiate into multiple cells types), he said:"All of our cells have the ability to self-renew and they are derived from muscle, fat, and connective tissue."

Asked about the regulatory framework for cell-based meat in the US, Schulze said Memphis Meats was working closely with the FDA and USDA, which have set up three working groups looking at safety, inspections and labeling (read more about this HERE).

The US government was moving"efficiently behind the scenes and publicly as well," he said.

As for terminology, in an ideal scenario, stakeholders will settle upon a term that can be used by regulators and consumers, said Schulze, who favors the 'factual and descriptive,' but also 'neutral' term 'cell-based meat' over other options such as 'cultivated' meat.

*Prior to this, the largest deal closed for the industry was BlueNalu's $20m Series A in September 2019. Future Meat Technologies had a $14m Series A in October 2019 and Memphis Meats had a $17m Series A in August 2017.

An investment of this magnitude if it is followed by a commercially available product at a reasonable price point sends a signal to the market that cell-cultured meatis here today rather than some far-off future endeavor,predicted Bruce Friedrich at the Good Food Institute, which promotes cell-cultured and plant-based meat.

This investment round is a monumental milestone in the progress of the field. This is the biggest investment of its kind for cultivated meat and will help Memphis Meats move toward the scale they will need to get their products to market.

But he added: This is still an industry that has sprung up almost overnight and its important to keep a sense of perspective here. While the idea of cultivated meat has been percolating for close to a century, the very first prototype was only produced six years ago.

Continued resources will be needed for years to come While private investments in cultivated meat are essential, they need to be supported by public funding in order to sustain the industry moving forward.

I am proud to invest once again in Memphis Meats, the world's leading cell-based meat company. In the next few decades I believe that cell-based meat will become a major part of our global meat supply. I cannot wait for that day!

Richard Branson

To meet the growing global demand for protein, it will take all of us working together we need both animal and cell-based. Our continued investment in Memphis Meats underscores our inclusive approach to the future of meat. We need all options on the table to meet customer and consumer needs now and in the future.

Elizabeth Gutschenritter, managing director, Cargills alternative protein team

Continued here:
Memphis Meats raises $161m to build its cell-based meat platform: 'We have a pretty clear path to bringing prices down to cost parity' -...

Stem Cell Assay Market Predicted to Accelerate the Growth by 2017-2025 Dagoretti News – Dagoretti News

Stem Cell Assay Market: Snapshot

Stem cell assay refers to the procedure of measuring the potency of antineoplastic drugs, on the basis of their capability of retarding the growth of human tumor cells. The assay consists of qualitative or quantitative analysis or testing of affected tissues and tumors, wherein their toxicity, impurity, and other aspects are studied.

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With the growing number of successful stem cell therapy treatment cases, the global market for stem cell assays will gain substantial momentum. A number of research and development projects are lending a hand to the growth of the market. For instance, the University of Washingtons Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) has attempted to manipulate stem cells to heal eye, kidney, and heart injuries. A number of diseases such as Alzheimers, spinal cord injury, Parkinsons, diabetes, stroke, retinal disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and neurological diseases can be successfully treated via stem cell therapy. Therefore, stem cell assays will exhibit growing demand.

Another key development in the stem cell assay market is the development of innovative stem cell therapies. In April 2017, for instance, the first participant in an innovative clinical trial at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health was successfully treated with stem cell therapy. CardiAMP, the investigational therapy, has been designed to direct a large dose of the patients own bone-marrow cells to the point of cardiac injury, stimulating the natural healing response of the body.

Newer areas of application in medicine are being explored constantly. Consequently, stem cell assays are likely to play a key role in the formulation of treatments of a number of diseases.

Global Stem Cell Assay Market: Overview

The increasing investment in research and development of novel therapeutics owing to the rising incidence of chronic diseases has led to immense growth in the global stem cell assay market. In the next couple of years, the market is expected to spawn into a multi-billion dollar industry as healthcare sector and governments around the world increase their research spending.

The report analyzes the prevalent opportunities for the markets growth and those that companies should capitalize in the near future to strengthen their position in the market. It presents insights into the growth drivers and lists down the major restraints. Additionally, the report gauges the effect of Porters five forces on the overall stem cell assay market.

Global Stem Cell Assay Market: Key Market Segments

For the purpose of the study, the report segments the global stem cell assay market based on various parameters. For instance, in terms of assay type, the market can be segmented into isolation and purification, viability, cell identification, differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, and function. By kit, the market can be bifurcated into human embryonic stem cell kits and adult stem cell kits. Based on instruments, flow cytometer, cell imaging systems, automated cell counter, and micro electrode arrays could be the key market segments.

In terms of application, the market can be segmented into drug discovery and development, clinical research, and regenerative medicine and therapy. The growth witnessed across the aforementioned application segments will be influenced by the increasing incidence of chronic ailments which will translate into the rising demand for regenerative medicines. Finally, based on end users, research institutes and industry research constitute the key market segments.

The report includes a detailed assessment of the various factors influencing the markets expansion across its key segments. The ones holding the most lucrative prospects are analyzed, and the factors restraining its trajectory across key segments are also discussed at length.

Global Stem Cell Assay Market: Regional Analysis

Regionally, the market is expected to witness heightened demand in the developed countries across Europe and North America. The increasing incidence of chronic ailments and the subsequently expanding patient population are the chief drivers of the stem cell assay market in North America. Besides this, the market is also expected to witness lucrative opportunities in Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.

Global Stem Cell Assay Market: Vendor Landscape

A major inclusion in the report is the detailed assessment of the markets vendor landscape. For the purpose of the study the report therefore profiles some of the leading players having influence on the overall market dynamics. It also conducts SWOT analysis to study the strengths and weaknesses of the companies profiled and identify threats and opportunities that these enterprises are forecast to witness over the course of the reports forecast period.

Some of the most prominent enterprises operating in the global stem cell assay market are Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K.), Hemogenix Inc. (U.S.), Promega Corporation (U.S.), Bio-Techne Corporation (U.S.), Merck KGaA (Germany), STEMCELL Technologies Inc. (CA), Cell Biolabs, Inc. (U.S.), and Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. (U.S.).

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Stem Cell Assay Market Predicted to Accelerate the Growth by 2017-2025 Dagoretti News - Dagoretti News

Team builds the 1st living robots – EarthSky

Scientists from the University of Vermont (UVM) and Tufts University in Massachusetts said on January 13, 2020, that theyve now assembled living cells into entirely new life-forms. They call them living robots, or xenobots for the frog species from whose cells the little robots sprang. The scientists describe them as tiny blobs, submillimeter in size (a millimeter is about 1/25th of an inch, so these little blobs are smaller than that). The blobs contain between 500 and 1,000 cells. They can heal themselves after being cut. The blobs have been able to scoot across a petri dish, self-organize, and even transport minute payloads. Maybe, eventually, theyll be able to carry a medicine to a specific place inside a human body, scrape plaque from arteries, search out radioactive contamination, or gather plastic pollution in Earths oceans.

And, yes, the scientists do acknowledge possible ethical issues. More about that below.

Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research, said in a statement:

These are novel living machines. Theyre neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. Its a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism

You look at the cells weve been building our xenobots with, and, genomically, theyre frogs. Its 100% frog DNA but these are not frogs. Then you ask, well, what else are these cells capable of building?

The results of the new research were published January 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! Only a few left. Order now!

A manufactured quadruped (4-footed) organism, 650-750 microns in diameter (a micron is a millionth of a meter). The scientists described this creature (if we can call it a creature) as a bit smaller than a pinhead. Image via Douglas Blackiston/ Tufts University/ University of Vermont.

In their published paper, these scientists wrote:

Most technologies are made from steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics, which degrade over time and can produce harmful ecological and health side effects. It would thus be useful to build technologies using self-renewing and biocompatible materials, of which the ideal candidates are living systems themselves. Thus, we here present a method that designs completely biological machines from the ground up: computers automatically design new machines in simulation, and the best designs are then built by combining together different biological tissues. This suggests others may use this approach to design a variety of living machines to safely deliver drugs inside the human body, help with environmental remediation, or further broaden our understanding of the diverse forms and functions life may adopt.

The new creatures were designed on a supercomputer at UVM, and then assembled and tested by biologists at Tufts University. The scientists statement described their process this way:

With months of processing time on the Deep Green supercomputer cluster at UVMs Vermont Advanced Computing Core, the team including lead author and doctoral student Sam Kriegman of UVM [@Kriegmerica on Twitter] used an evolutionary algorithm to create thousands of candidate designs for the new life-forms. Attempting to achieve a task assigned by the scientists like locomotion in one direction the computer would, over and over, reassemble a few hundred simulated cells into myriad forms and body shapes. As the programs ran driven by basic rules about the biophysics of what single frog skin and cardiac cells can do the more successful simulated organisms were kept and refined, while failed designs were tossed out. After a hundred independent runs of the algorithm, the most promising designs were selected for testing.

Then the team at Tufts, led by Michael Levin and with key work by microsurgeon Douglas Blackiston transferred the in-silico designs into life. First they gathered stem cells, harvested from embryos of African frogs, the species Xenopus laevis [African clawed frogs; hence the name xenobots.]

These were separated into single cells and left to incubate. Then, using tiny forceps and an even tinier electrode, the cells were cut and joined under a microscope into a close approximation of the designs specified by the computer.

Assembled into body forms never seen in nature, the cells began to work together. The skin cells formed a more passive architecture, while the once-random contractions of heart muscle cells were put to work creating ordered forward motion as guided by the computers design, and aided by spontaneous self-organizing patterns allowing the robots to move on their own.

These reconfigurable organisms were shown to be able move in a coherent fashion and explore their watery environment for days or weeks, powered by embryonic energy stores. Turned over, however, they failed, like beetles flipped on their backs.

Later tests showed that groups of xenobots would move around in circles, pushing pellets into a central location spontaneously and collectively. Others were built with a hole through the center to reduce drag. In simulated versions of these, the scientists were able to repurpose this hole as a pouch to successfully carry an object.

Wow yes?

The scientists said they see this work as part of a bigger picture. And they acknowledged that some may fear the implications of rapid technological change and complex biological manipulations. Levin commented:

That fear is not unreasonable. When we start to mess around with complex systems that we dont understand, were going to get unintended consequences.

However, he said:

If humanity is going to survive into the future, we need to better understand how complex properties, somehow, emerge from simple rules.

He said much of science is focused on:

controlling the low-level rules. We also need to understand the high-level rules.

I think its an absolute necessity for society going forward to get a better handle on systems where the outcome is very complex. A first step towards doing that is to explore: how do living systems decide what an overall behavior should be and how do we manipulate the pieces to get the behaviors we want?

In other words, he said:

this study is a direct contribution to getting a handle on what people are afraid of, which is unintended consequences.

Bongard added:

Theres all of this innate creativity in life. We want to understand that more deeply and how we can direct and push it toward new forms.

On the left, the anatomical blueprint for a computer-designed organism, discovered on a UVM supercomputer. On the right, the living organism, built entirely from frog skin (green) and heart muscle (red) cells. The background displays traces carved by a swarm of these new-to-nature organisms as they move through a field of particulate matter. Image via Sam Kriegman/ UVM.

Bottom line: Scientists said in early January 2020 that theyve created the first living robots, or xenobots, assembled from the cells of frogs. Their creators promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up.

Source: A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms

Via UVM

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Team builds the 1st living robots - EarthSky

Team Builds the First Living Robots – Newswise

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Research Results

SCIENCE

Newswise A book is made of wood. But it is not a tree. The dead cells have been repurposed to serve another need.

Now a team of scientists has repurposed living cells--scraped from frog embryos--and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide "xenobots" can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient)--and heal themselves after being cut.

"These are novel living machines," saysJoshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

The new creatures were designed on a supercomputer at UVM--and then assembled and tested by biologists at Tufts University. "We can imagine many useful applications of these living robots that other machines can't do," says co-leader Michael Levin who directs theCenter for Regenerative and Developmental Biologyat Tufts, "like searching out nasty compounds or radioactive contamination, gathering microplastic in the oceans, traveling in arteries to scrape out plaque."

The results of the new research were published January 13 in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

BESPOKE LIVING SYSTEMS

People have been manipulating organisms for human benefit since at least the dawn of agriculture, genetic editing is becoming widespread, and a few artificial organisms have been manually assembled in the past few years--copying the body forms of known animals.

But this research, for the first time ever, "designs completely biological machines from the ground up," the team writes in their new study.

With months of processing time on the Deep Green supercomputer cluster at UVM'sVermont Advanced Computing Core, the team--including lead author and doctoral student Sam Kriegman--used an evolutionary algorithm to create thousands of candidate designs for the new life-forms. Attempting to achieve a task assigned by the scientists--like locomotion in one direction--the computer would, over and over, reassemble a few hundred simulated cells into myriad forms and body shapes. As the programs ran--driven by basic rules about the biophysics of what single frog skin and cardiac cells can do--the more successful simulated organisms were kept and refined, while failed designs were tossed out. After a hundred independent runs of the algorithm, the most promising designs were selected for testing.

Then the team at Tufts, led by Levin and with key work by microsurgeon Douglas Blackiston--transferred the in silico designs into life. First they gathered stem cells, harvested from the embryos of African frogs, the speciesXenopus laevis. (Hence the name "xenobots.") These were separated into single cells and left to incubate. Then, using tiny forceps and an even tinier electrode, the cells were cut and joined under a microscope into a close approximation of the designs specified by the computer.

Assembled into body forms never seen in nature, the cells began to work together. The skin cells formed a more passive architecture, while the once-random contractions of heart muscle cells were put to work creating ordered forward motion as guided by the computer's design, and aided by spontaneous self-organizing patterns--allowing the robots to move on their own.

These reconfigurable organisms were shown to be able move in a coherent fashion--and explore their watery environment for days or weeks, powered by embryonic energy stores. Turned over, however, they failed, like beetles flipped on their backs.

Later tests showed that groups of xenobots would move around in circles, pushing pellets into a central location--spontaneously and collectively. Others were built with a hole through the center to reduce drag. In simulated versions of these, the scientists were able to repurpose this hole as a pouch to successfully carry an object. "It's a step toward using computer-designed organisms for intelligent drug delivery," says Bongard, a professor in UVM'sDepartment of Computer ScienceandComplex Systems Center.

LIVING TECHNOLOGIES

Many technologies are made of steel, concrete or plastic. That can make them strong or flexible. But they also can create ecological and human health problems, like the growing scourge of plastic pollution in the oceans and the toxicity of many synthetic materials and electronics. "The downside of living tissue is that it's weak and it degrades," say Bongard. "That's why we use steel. But organisms have 4.5 billion years of practice at regenerating themselves and going on for decades." And when they stop working--death--they usually fall apart harmlessly. "These xenobots are fully biodegradable," say Bongard, "when they're done with their job after seven days, they're just dead skin cells."

Your laptop is a powerful technology. But try cutting it in half. Doesn't work so well. In the new experiments, the scientists cut the xenobots and watched what happened. "We sliced the robot almost in half and it stitches itself back up and keeps going," says Bongard. "And this is something you can't do with typical machines."

CRACKING THE CODE

Both Levin and Bongard say the potential of what they've been learning about how cells communicate and connect extends deep into both computational science and our understanding of life. "The big question in biology is to understand the algorithms that determine form and function," says Levin. "The genome encodes proteins, but transformative applications await our discovery of how that hardware enables cells to cooperate toward making functional anatomies under very different conditions."

To make an organism develop and function, there is a lot of information sharing and cooperation--organic computation--going on in and between cells all the time, not just within neurons. These emergent and geometric properties are shaped by bioelectric, biochemical, and biomechanical processes, "that run on DNA-specified hardware," Levin says, "and these processes are reconfigurable, enabling novel living forms."

The scientists see the work presented in their newPNASstudy--"A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms,"--as one step in applying insights about this bioelectric code to both biology and computer science. "What actually determines the anatomy towards which cells cooperate?" Levin asks. "You look at the cells we've been building our xenobots with, and, genomically, they're frogs. It's 100% frog DNA--but these are not frogs. Then you ask, well, what else are these cells capable of building?"

"As we've shown, these frog cells can be coaxed to make interesting living forms that are completely different from what their default anatomy would be," says Levin. He and the other scientists in the UVM and Tufts team--with support from DARPA's Lifelong Learning Machines program and the National Science Foundation-- believe that building the xenobots is a small step toward cracking what he calls the "morphogenetic code," providing a deeper view of the overall way organisms are organized--and how they compute and store information based on their histories and environment.

FUTURE SHOCKS

Many people worry about the implications of rapid technological change and complex biological manipulations. "That fear is not unreasonable," Levin says. "When we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences." A lot of complex systems, like an ant colony, begin with a simple unit--an ant--from which it would be impossible to predict the shape of their colony or how they can build bridges over water with their interlinked bodies.

"If humanity is going to survive into the future, we need to better understand how complex properties, somehow, emerge from simple rules," says Levin. Much of science is focused on "controlling the low-level rules. We also need to understand the high-level rules," he says. "If you wanted an anthill with two chimneys instead of one, how do you modify the ants? We'd have no idea."

"I think it's an absolute necessity for society going forward to get a better handle on systems where the outcome is very complex," Levin says. "A first step towards doing that is to explore: how do living systems decide what an overall behavior should be and how do we manipulate the pieces to get the behaviors we want?"

In other words, "this study is a direct contribution to getting a handle on what people are afraid of, which is unintended consequences," Levin says--whether in the rapid arrival of self-driving cars, changing gene drives to wipe out whole lineages of viruses, or the many other complex and autonomous systems that will increasingly shape the human experience.

"There's all of this innate creativity in life," says UVM's Josh Bongard. "We want to understand that more deeply--and how we can direct and push it toward new forms."

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SEE ORIGINAL STUDY

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Team Builds the First Living Robots - Newswise

The ‘xenobot’ is the worlds newest robot and it’s made from living animal cells – The Loop

Forget gleaming metal droids -- the robots of the future may have more in common with the average amphibian than with R2D2.

A team of scientists have found a way to not just program a living organism, but to build brand new life-forms from scratch using cells, creating what researchers are calling xenobots.

Tiny in size, but vast in potential, these millimetre-sized bots could potentially be programmed to help in medical procedures, ocean cleanup and investigating dangerous compounds, among other things.

"They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal, said researcher Joshua Bongard in a news release. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

In the introduction for the research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Monday, researchers point out that the traditional building blocks weve used for robots and tech -- steel, plastic, chemicals, etc. -- all degrade over time and can produce harmful ecological and health side-effects.

After realizing that the best self-renewing and biocompatible materials would be living systems themselves, researchers decided to create a method that designs completely biological machines from the ground up.

The bots are made out of stem cells taken from frog embryos -- specifically, an African clawed frog called xenopus laevis, which supplied the inspiration for the name xenobot. To design the xenobots, the possible configurations of different cells were first modeled on a supercomputer at the University of Vermont.

The designs then went to Tufts University, where the embryonic cells were collected and separated to develop into more specialized cells. Then, like sculptors (if sculptors used microsurgery forceps and electrodes), biologists manually shaped the cells into clumps that matched the computer designs.

Different structures were sketched out by the computer in accordance with the scientists goal for each xenobot.

For example, one xenobot was designed to be able to move purposely in a specific direction. To achieve this, researchers put cardiac cells on the bottom of the xenobot. These cells naturally contract and expand on their own, meaning that they could serve as the xenobots engine, or legs, and help move the rest of the organism, which was built out of more static skin cells.

In order to test if the living robots were truly moving the way they were designed to, and not just randomly, researchers performed a test that has stumped many a living creature.

They flipped the robot on its back. And just like a capsized turtle, it could no longer move.

When researchers created further designs for the bots, they found that they could design them to push microscopic objects, and even carry objects through a pouch.

"It's a step toward using computer-designed organisms for intelligent drug delivery," says Bongard.

The possible uses for these tiny robots are numerous, researchers say.

In biomedical settings, one could envision such biobots (made from the patients own cells) removing plaque from artery walls, identifying cancer, or settling down to differentiate or control events in locations of disease, the research paper suggests.

A robot made out of metal or steel generally has to be repaired by human hands if it sustains damage. One major benefit that researchers found of creating these robots out of living cells was how they reacted to physical damage.

A video taken by the researchers showed that when one of their organisms was cut almost in half by metal tweezers, the two sides of the wound simply stitched itself back together.

These living robots, researchers realized, could repair themselves automatically, something you cant do with typical machines, Bongard said.

Because they are living cells, they are also naturally biodegradable, Bongard pointed out. Once theyve fulfilled their purpose, theyre just dead skin cells, making them even more optimal for usage in medical or environmental research.

Although scientists have been increasingly manipulating genetics and biology, this is the first time that a programmable organism has been created from scratch, researchers say.

This new research takes scientists a step closer to answering just how different cells work together to execute all of the complex processes that occur every day in animals and humans.

"The big question in biology is to understand the algorithms that determine form and function," said co-leader Michael Levin in the press release. He directs the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts.

"What actually determines the anatomy towards which cells co-operate? he asked. You look at the cells we've been building our xenobots with, and, genomically, they're frogs. It's 100 per cent frog DNA -- but these are not frogs. Then you ask, well, what else are these cells capable of building? As we've shown, these frog cells can be coaxed to make interesting living forms that are completely different from what their default anatomy would be.

Of course, a biological organism created and programmed by humans which is capable of healing itself might sound a little alarming. After all, one of the sponsors of the research is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is affiliated with the U.S. military.

Researchers acknowledged in the press release that the implications around such technological and biological advancements can be worrying at times.

That fear is not unreasonable, Levin said. However, he believes that in order to move forward with science, we should not hold back from complex questions. This study is a direct contribution to getting a handle on what people are afraid of, which is unintended consequences.

"I think it's an absolute necessity for society going forward to get a better handle on systems where the outcome is very complex," Levin says. "A first step towards doing that is to explore: how do living systems decide what an overall behavior should be and how do we manipulate the pieces to get the behaviors we want?"

More on this story from CTVNews.ca

Link:
The 'xenobot' is the worlds newest robot and it's made from living animal cells - The Loop

Scientists Have Built The First-Ever Robots Constructed Entirely Out of Living Cells – ScienceAlert

In another lifetime, if they had been allowed to follow their natural development, the stem cells taken from embryonic frogs would have turned into skin and heart tissue within living, breathing animals.

Instead, in configurations designed by algorithms and constructed by humans, those cells have been assembled into something new: the first-ever robots constructed entirely out of living cells.

The creators have called them xenobots; tiny, submillimetre-sized blobs containing between 500 and 1,000 cells that have been able to scoot across a petri dish, self-organise, and even transport minute payloads. These xenobots are unlike any living organism or organ we've encountered or created to date.

The possibilities for custom living machines designed for a variety of purposes, from targeted drug delivery to environmental remediation, are pretty mind-blowing.

"These are novel living machines," said computer scientist and roboticist Joshua Bongard of the University of Vermont.

"They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

Designing the xenobots required the use of a supercomputer, and an algorithm that could virtually put together a few hundred frog heart and skin cells in different configurations (somewhat like LEGO bricks), and simulate the results.

The scientists would assign a desired outcome - such as locomotion - and the algorithm would create candidate designs aimed to produce that outcome. Thousands of configurations of cells were designed by the algorithm, with varying levels of success.

The least successful configurations of cells were tossed out, and the most successful were kept and refined, until they were about as good as they were going to get.

Then, the team selected the most promising designs to physically build out of cells harvested from embryonic African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis).This was painstaking work, using microscopic forceps and an electrode.

When they were finally put together, the configurations were actually able to move around, as per the simulations. The skin cells act as a sort of scaffolding to hold everything together, while the contractions of the heart cell muscles are put to work to propel the xenobots.

These machines moved about an aqueous environment for up to a week without the need for additional nutrients, powered by their own 'pre-loaded' energy stores in the form of lipids and proteins.

One design had a hole through the middle in an attempt to reduce drag. This hole could be exapted into a pouch for transporting objects, the team found; as they evolved the design, they incorporated the pouch and transported an object in a simulation.

(Kriegman et al., PNAS, 2019)

The xenobots moved objects around in the real world, too. When their environment was scattered with particulates, the xenobots spontaneously worked together, moving in a circular motion to push the particulates into one spot.

It's fascinating work. According to the researchers, their efforts can provide invaluable insight into how cells communicate and work together.

"You look at the cells we've been building our xenobots with, and, genomically, they're frogs. It's 100 percent frog DNA - but these are not frogs. Then you ask, well, what else are these cells capable of building?" said biologist Michael Levin of Tufts University.

"As we've shown, these frog cells can be coaxed to make interesting living forms that are completely different from what their default anatomy would be."

Although the team calls them 'living', that may well depend on how you define living creatures. These xenobots are not able to evolve on their own, there are no reproductive organs, and they are unable to multiply.

When the cells run out of nutrients, the xenobots simply become a small clump of dead cells. (This also means they are biodegradable, which gives them another advantage over metal and plastic robots.)

Although the current state of the xenobots is relatively harmless, there is the potential for future work to incorporate nervous system cells, or develop them into bioweapons. As this field of research grows, regulation and ethics guidelines will need to be written, applied and adhered to.

But there is plenty of potential good, too.

"We can imagine many useful applications of these living robots that other machines can't do," Levin said, "like searching out nasty compounds or radioactive contamination, gathering microplastic in the oceans, travelling in arteries to scrape out plaque."

The research has been published in PNAS, and the team has made their source code freely available on Github.

Original post:
Scientists Have Built The First-Ever Robots Constructed Entirely Out of Living Cells - ScienceAlert