Harvard Creates Half-Man Cyborg Flesh

Bioengineers at Harvard University have created what appears to be the first cyborg tissue. The tissue is a structure of neurons, heart cells, muscle, blood vessels, interwoven with nanowires and transistors.

The new flesh has normal functioning cells connected to a computer interface via its electronic interface. The interface enables scientists to directly measure cell activity. In order to create the cyborg flesh, researchers started with a 3D scaffold that enables cells to grow around them. For this, collagen, which is the natural binding tissue in animals, was implanted with a structure of nanowires and transistors. When the cells grew around the structure, they were naturally connected to the nanoelectric collagen structure.

The team have mostly been able to grow rat cells around the structure, and they managed to grow a 1,5 centimeter human blood vessel. The next step in the project is to find a way to talk to individual cells in the same way the biological system does.

One day you could use nanobots to monitor your health and cure unhealthy cells with a tap on your smartphone, or you could use nanosponges to soak up toxins and bacteria that are bad for your health.

Although we are still far away from such innovative applications, the future of projects that involve nanotechnology promises great possibilities in the optimization of human health.

Source: Extreme Tech