Researchers have built a biological robot

Researchers have built a biological robot that is controlled with part of a rat’s spinal cord. The 6-millimetre robot is made of 3D-printed muscles made of laboratory-grown mouse cells, connected to the section of a rat’s spine that controls the hind legs. Nerves grew from the rat tissue into the muscles and made them contract, and the team could control their ‘Spinobot’ with neurotransmitters. Eventually, the technology could be used in prosthetics, says roboticist Collin Kaufman, but that would probably involve human tissue.