Bhattaram Dhruv, Golestan Kian, Zhang Xuanshuo, Yang Shihong, Gong Zhuowei, Brody Steven L, Horani Amjad, Webster-Wood Victoria A, Farimani Amir Barati, Ren Xi
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Sep 26;11(39):eadx4176. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adx4176.
Ciliated biobots (CiliaBots) are engineered tissues capable of self-actuated propulsion via exterior motile cilia. While correlations have been observed between CiliaBot motility and morphology, direct control of morphological features to deliver desired motility outcomes remains unexplored. Here, we describe the engineering of aggregated CiliaBots (AggreBots) to augment control over CiliaBot structural parameters and, consequently, motility patterns through guided, modular aggregation of human airway epithelial spheroids [referred to as CiliaBot building blocks (CBBs)]. Multi-CBB aggregation generated rod-, triangle-, and diamond-shaped AggreBots, altering tissue geometry without sacrificing surface cilia density or inter-CBB boundary fidelity. The further introduction of -mutated CBBs as cilia-inactive modules enabled the generation of hybrid AggreBots with precision modulation of active cilia distribution, further empowering alterations to motility patterns. Our results demonstrate the potential of AggreBots as living tissue propellers with morphological "levers" by which modifications to tissue motility can be theoretically planned and experimentally verified.
纤毛生物机器人（CiliaBots）是一种经过工程改造的组织，能够通过外部运动纤毛实现自我驱动推进。虽然已经观察到CiliaBot的运动性与形态之间存在相关性，但通过直接控制形态特征来实现所需的运动结果仍未得到探索。在这里，我们描述了聚合CiliaBots（AggreBots）的工程设计，通过引导人呼吸道上皮球体（称为CiliaBot构建模块，CBBs）进行模块化聚集，增强对CiliaBot结构参数的控制，从而实现运动模式的控制。多个CBB聚集产生了杆状、三角形和菱形的AggreBots，在不牺牲表面纤毛密度或CBB间边界保真度的情况下改变了组织几何形状。进一步引入作为纤毛失活模块的突变CBBs，能够生成具有活性纤毛分布精确调制的混合AggreBots，进一步推动了运动模式的改变。我们的结果证明了AggreBots作为具有形态“杠杆”的活体组织推进器的潜力，通过这些“杠杆”，理论上可以规划并通过实验验证对组织运动性的修改。
