Mindscape 274 | Gizem Gumuskaya on Building Robots from Human Cells

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.

Gimez 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.

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[newrever]

This is incredible! Dr. Gumuskaya is wonderfully articulate.

[Confuseddave]

That last line about listening to Mindscape "in the hood" made me chuckle - I'm assuming she meant the tissue culture hood, rather than her proverbial neighbourhood

[Life_]

Congratulations on 200k YouTube subscribers!

[Ersin_Dogan]

Wow, that was intense. If it were shown in a movie, I wouldn't watch it, because I would think it is completely unrealistic. But now I fear everything is possible. Puh 😮.

[JimmSlimm]

Conways' game of life, but remastered and in 3D :)

[filippoalemagna]

I didn't get what's the function of the biological circuits as these spheroids aren't programmed to do anything, so what's the role of these circuits?

[desgreene]

Yes I agree that biology will be very exciting for the near future especially with the added impetus of AI. Good times ahead!

[posthocprior]

I work in the field, robotics. This was close to impossible for me to understand. This researcher is unable to use terms that most would understand (from outside of the field) and there are many run on sentences in which there were so many cell robotic words I’ve never heard ( can provide a long list, if anyone asks), I got lost in the complexity. Finally, she’s so verbose, it took her a long time to answer even a simple question.