Watch a robotic shoulder practice twisting and stretching human cells

“Using robots for tissue engineering produces substantially extra practical biomechanical stimulations, which I see as a breakthrough,” claims Dana Damian, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield, who was not associated in the analyze. “The next move is to create that robot involvement reveals a clear advancement more than working with common bioreactors.”

The technologies could be utilised to deliver tissue to fix tears in the rotator cuff tendons, a really common shoulder challenge that can occur from a sports injuries or a illness this kind of as tendinitis, which is the most common result in of shoulder pain in grownups. Normally, surgeons use sutures to reattach damaged tendons to the bone, a mend that fails in all-around 40% of instances simply because of bad tissue healing. Tissue grafts developed making use of stimulation from humanoid robots could heal much more productively. 

The approach is continue to some way from producing a absolutely purposeful tendon tissue graft, but the researchers say a very similar strategy could have other programs as well–creating far better muscle groups or ligaments in bioreactors, for example. And the robots could be made to match the patient’s very own physiology, personalizing the tissue they produce, the staff indicates.

Correction: The name of the journal has been amended.