A Model of a Synthetic Biological Communication Interface between Mammalian Cells and Mechatronic Systems

Abstract

The creation of communication interfaces between abiotic and biotic systems represents a significant research challenge. In this work, we design and model a system linking the biochemical signaling pathways of mammalian cells to the actions of a mobile robotic prosthesis. We envision this system as a robotic platform carrying an optically monitored bioreactor that harbors mammalian cells. The cellular, optical signal is captured by an onboard fluorescent microscope and converted into an electronic signal. We first present a design for the overall cell-robot system, with a specific focus on the design of the synthetic gene networks needed for the system. We use these synthetic networks to encode motion commands within the cell's endogenous, oscillatory calcium signaling pathways. We then describe a potential system whereby this oscillatory signal could be outputted and monitored as a change in cellular fluorescence. Next, we use the changes resulting from the synthetic biological modifications as new parameters in a simulation of a well-established mathematical model for intracellular calcium signaling. The resulting signal is processed in the frequency domain, with specific frequencies activating cognate robot motion subroutines.

A Neuromorphic Digital Circuit for Neuronal Information Encoding Using Astrocytic Calcium Oscillations

“…Although cellular calcium signaling was already used for realization of information processing (Heyde and Ruder, 2016), the use of astrocytic calcium oscillations in the neural information processing is less studied. The present study showed a new angle to analyze neuron–astrocyte crosstalk in hardware.…”

Feed-forward and Feedback Control in Astrocytes for Ca2+-based Molecular Communications Nanonetworks

“…The implementation of the control function (12) in astrocytes requires a high-level synthetic circuit design. Synthetic biology has been extensively studied in mammalian cells [18], [19], [20]. However, since the objective of the remainder of the paper is for the validation of the proposed technique, in the following one must find an abstraction of the control function regarding the synthetic circuit.…”