Leveraging Cells for Synthetic Morphogenesis

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Silia in the body are essential for various functions like aiding inhaled pathogens to move out of the trachea and facilitating the movement of eggs in the oviductal epithelium. The new approach to synthetic morphogenesis involves leveraging the cells' existing abilities without altering their genetic makeup, by engineering their environment to guide them towards the desired outcome. This shift from a gene-centric perspective aims to utilize cells to achieve the final engineering goals efficiently, a concept central to the research conducted in Mike's lab.

Modern biology is advancing by leaps and bounds, not only in understanding how organisms work, but in learning how to modify them in interesting ways. One exciting frontier is the study of tiny "robots" created from living molecules and cells, rather than metal and plastic. Gizem Gumuskaya, who works with previous guest Michael Levin, has created anthrobots, a new kind of structure made from living human cells. We talk about how that works, what they can do, and what future developments might bring.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/04/29/274-gizem-gumuskaya-on-building-robots-from-human-cells/

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Gizem Gumuskaya received her Ph.D. from Tufts University and the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically-Inspired Engineering. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Tufts University. She previously received a dual master's degree in Architecture and Synthetic Biology from MIT.

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