Humanoid Bioreactor Project
We investigate the potential of using musculoskeletal humanoid robots as a platform for tissue engineering applications. Combined with bioreactor chambers, they offer the possibility for creating a new platform to engineer musculoskeletal tissue grafts and test biomaterials with physiologically and clinically relevant mechanical stresses. In the long term, this strategy may benefit patients by enabling access to personalised engineered grafts and biomaterials.
This highly interdisciplinary project involves researchers across multiple departments in Oxford: NDORMS, Engineering Science Department and Mathematical Institute. It also involves the Department of Informatics of the Technical University of Munich as an external partner. The project is mainly supported by the EPSRC (Healthcare Technologies).
Publications
Mouthuy, PA., Snelling, S., Hostettler, R., Kharchenko, A., Salmon, S., Wainman, A., Mimpen, J., Paul, C. and Carr, A. Humanoid robots to mechanically stress human cells grown in soft bioreactors. Commun Eng 1, 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-022-00004-9
Mouthuy, PA. and Carr, A. Growing tissue grafts on humanoid robots: A future strategy in regenerative medicine?, Science Robotics 2(4) (2017).
A robotic Petri dish: How to grow human cells in a robot shoulder