2025-06-17 タフツ大学
“The fact that these bots become biologically younger than the adult cells they’re made from suggests that the process of organizing into a new shape alone can reset the cellular aging clock—without any genetic reprogramming,” says Gizem Gumuskaya. Here, an Anthrobot, depth colored, with a corona of cilia that provides its locomotion. Image: Gizem Gumuskaya
<関連情報>
- https://now.tufts.edu/2025/06/17/reset-cellular-aging-clock
- https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202409330
アントロボットの形態学的、行動学的、トランスクリプトーム的ライフサイクル The Morphological, Behavioral, and Transcriptomic Life Cycle of Anthrobots
Gizem Gumuskaya, Nikolai Davey, Pranjal Srivastava, Andrew Bender, Léo Pio-Lopez, Douglas Hazel, Michael Levin
Advanced Science Published: 06 June 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202409330
Abstract
Fascinating aspects of morphogenetic and behavioral plasticity of living material are revealed by novel constructs that self-construct from genetically wild-type cells. Anthrobots arise from cultured adult human airway epithelial cells, developing, becoming self-motile, and acquiring neural repair capabilities without exogenous genetic circuits or inorganic scaffolds. Progress in bioengineering and regenerative medicine depends on developing a predictive understanding of collective cell behavior in novel circumstances. Toward that end, here a number of life cycle properties of Anthrobots, including their morphogenesis, maturation, and demise, are quantitatively characterized. A self-healing capacity and a remarkable reduction of epigenetic age upon morphogenesis are uncovered. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that assembling into Anthrobots drives a massive remodeling of gene expression relative to their cellular source, including several embryonic patterning genes, and a shift toward more evolutionarily ancient gene expression. These data reveal new aspects of engineered multicellular configurations, in which wild-type adult human cells self-assemble into an active living construct with its own distinct transcriptome, morphogenesis, and life history.
