Harvard engineers grow cybernetic organoid from stem cells

Researchers at Harvard University have managed to develop a fundamentally new method for creating organoids - miniature models of real organs obtained from stem cells. The innovative creation of scientists is essentially a cyborg: it is penetrated by numerous electronic sensors to track the behavior of individual elements.

Organoids themselves are created to develop new medical technologies. However, the usual methods are imperfect - they do not allow a detailed examination of the process of forming the final model, especially at the most important early stages. The introduction of any kind of tracking sensors disrupts the development of the future mini-organ. Researchers from the team of Jia Liu, a professor at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, took up the solution to the problem.

Engineers described the process of creating cybernetic organoids from stem cells in an article published in the journal Nano Letters. The main core of the method remained the same, but the team of Jia Liu suggested introducing electronic sensors already at the first steps of growth. Sensors added at such an early stage form a living whole system with the cells, that is, a kind of organic-synthetic hybrid that provides the possibility of detailed monitoring of cell development.

The researchers took their own development as the basis of the experiment - ultra-thin and flexible conductive networks created to work with cell cultures. In the course of the study, the engineers made a new wave-like version of their creation, which is more extensible. After that, they placed the invention on a stem cell substrate, and then stimulated them to develop. As it grows, the organoid “swallowed” the network, making it part of its own structure. The experiment ended in success: the cybernetic model of the heart muscle created by a team of scientists lived in vitro for 90 days.

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