Outputs – Biohybrid Futures

Media

Watch our Spotlight video from Public Policy Southampton (PPS) summarising our project:

And listen to our podcast, where we review the importance of early engagement in emerging technologies, focusing on biohybrid robotics, responsible AI and distributed acoustic sensing for smart cities!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hfGb5uYd5UURrv4nCJn6x?si=65003b91370f4ce5

You can also listen to it on Apple Podcasts and Podbean.

Research articles

Ethics and responsibility in biohybrid robotics research – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Mestre, R., Astobiza, A. M., Webster-Wood, V. A., Ryan, M., & Saif, M. T. A. (2024). Ethics and responsibility in biohybrid robotics research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(31), e2310458121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310458121.

The industrial revolution of the 19th century marked the onset of an era of machines and robots that transformed societies. Since the beginning of the 21st century, a new generation of robots envisions similar societal transformation. These robots are biohybrid: part living and part engineered. They may self-assemble and emerge from complex interactions between living cells. While this new era of living robots presents unprecedented opportunities for positive societal impact, it also poses a host of ethical challenges. A systematic, nuanced examination of these ethical issues is of paramount importance to guide the evolution of this nascent field. Multidisciplinary fields face the challenge that inertia around collective action to address ethical boundaries may result in unexpected consequences for researchers and societies alike.

Read this paper here.

Review paper: Biohybrid robotics: From the nanoscale to the macroscale – Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs)

Biohybrid robotics: from the nanoscale to the macroscale. R Mestre, T Patiño & S Sánchez, 2021, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, 13(5), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1002/wnan.1703.

Biohybrid robotics combines biological entities with artificial materials to achieve enhanced performance or unique features challenging to replicate with synthetic materials. Integration occurs at three scales: nanoscale, microscale, and macroscale. At the nanoscale, enzymes catalyze biocompatible reactions, powering self-propelled nanoparticles for biomedical uses such as drug delivery. At the microscale, whole cells like bacteria or spermatozoa replace enzymes, leveraging their motility for cargo transport, drug delivery, in vitro fertilization, or biofilm removal. At the macroscale, tissues comprising millions of cells, such as cardiac or skeletal muscle, enable biorobotic devices powered by tissue contractions. These untethered systems mimic crawling or swimming, while ongoing advancements aim to integrate various tissue types for more realistic biomimetic devices. Tethered bioactuators, on the other hand, excel as tissue models for drug screening or studying muscle disorders due to their three-dimensional structure.

Read this review of biohybrid robotics here.

Working paper: Biohybrid robotics as a fragmented frontier of biopolitics

The paper in progress examines the emerging field of tissue-based biohybrid robotics within the context of biopolitics. Biohybrid robotics combines living tissues with synthetic components to create robots with unique capabilities, such as artificial stingrays, jellyfish, and xenobots. These models are fragile, short-lived, and reliant on specialized laboratory environments, reflecting the nascent and fragmented state of the field. The research highlights the lack of standardization in biohybrid robotics and introduces the concept of a “fragmentary frontier” to describe its development and challenges. We argue that while biohybrid research does not redefine life itself, it produces isolated, specialised systems that address specific technological and biomedical questions, connecting these innovations to broader biopolitical discussions.

Working paper: Actor-network deliberation

The paper in progress explores the ethical challenges of emerging technologies, using biohybrid robotics as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility and necessity of ethical evaluation despite the crisis of expertise. Biohybrid robotics is categorized into bottom-up and top-down design paradigms, emphasising its interdisciplinary nature and reliance on diverse fields such as biology and engineering. We examine two approaches from Science and Technology Studies (STS)—Studies of Expertise and Experience (SEE) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT)—arguing that ANT is better suited to address the complexity of biohybrid robotics due to its focus on networks of human and nonhuman actors. The paper proposes using ANT and deliberative methods, including stakeholder and issue mapping, to conceptualize biohybrid robotics as a ‘network of expertise.’ This approach integrates diverse perspectives, addressing ethical concerns and fostering the responsible development of emerging technologies.

Workshops

Preparing for Human-Biohybrid Robot Interactions – Living Machines 2024 conference – July 8th, 2024, Chicago

At the Living Machines conference on 8 July 2024, the tutorial Preparing for Human-Biohybrid Robot Interactions explored how people envision future interactions with biohybrid robots, and what constitutes a strong footing for responsible innovation in the field. We began by reviewing the current state of the field and proposing a shared framework for discussion. A pre-survey shaped a session on how experts and the public imagine biohybrid robots in 50 years, emphasising the importance of addressing ethical, social, and policy dimensions early. Then participants were then split into two groups: one focused on the tissue-based robotics perspective, the other on the animal cyborg robotics perspective. They engaged in speculative timeline activities, mapping breakthroughs and challenges across six axes: technological, interactive use cases, social, political, ethical, and environmental. To further enrich the discussion, we introduced disruptor probes—speculative scenarios where human-biohybrid robot interactions went awry—challenging participants to adapt their timelines in response. We synthesised the outcomes and compared group results. Together, we discussed principles for responsible innovation to guide the development of human-biohybrid robot interactions.

You can read the original call of the workshop here.

Interdisciplinary Speculations for the Future of Biohybrid Robots – Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (fPET 2024) – September 17th, 2024, Karlsruhe

We organised an interactive workshop for the 2024 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (fPET 2024) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. The key idea was to invite experts from a variety of fields, including bioengineering, sociology, art, and public policy, to explore the future of biohybrid robotics. The 1.5-hour session began with brief talks by panellists, each offering unique insights into the potential trajectories of this emerging field. Participants were then divided into two groups to tackle speculative scenarios, or disruptor probes. One group focused on policy and governance strategies, while the other explored artistic and design approaches, using AI video generation to visualise creative biohybrid concepts. Following group deliberations, representatives presented their outcomes in a lively discussion and Q&A session. By bringing together experts from multiple disciplines, the workshop created a collaborative environment focused on advancing responsible innovation in engineering biology.