A modular approach to the design, fabrication, and characterization of muscle-powered biological machines.
Biological machines consisting of cells and biomaterials have the potential to dynamically sense, process, respond, and adapt to environmental signals in real time. As a first step toward the realization of such machines, which will require biological actuators that can generate force and perform mechanical work, we have developed a method of manufacturing modular skeletal muscle actuators that can generate up to 1.7 mN (3.2 kPa) of passive tension force and 300 μN (0.56 kPa) of active tension force in response to external stimulation. Such millimeter-scale biological actuators can be coupled to a wide variety of 3D-printed skeletons to power complex output behaviors such as controllable locomotion. This article provides a comprehensive protocol for forward engineering of biological actuators and 3D-printed skeletons for any design application. 3D printing of the injection molds and skeletons requires 3 h, seeding the muscle actuators takes 2 h, and differentiating the muscle takes 7 d.
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.|Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Ritu
R
Raman
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.|Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Caroline
C
Cvetkovic
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.|Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.|Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Rashid
R
Bashir
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002460:Cell Line; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D023822:Tissue Engineering