Robot uses ‘claw machine’ design to sort stem cells for embryo model studies

A new stem cell-sorting robot is giving scientists their best shot yet at decoding the third week of human development.

Originally published by Srishti Gupta, at Interesting Engineer, on Jun 10, 2025

Gastruloids are stem cell-derived models that replicate a key phase of early embryonic development: the third week of gestation (representative image). iStock/Rasi Bhadramani

Researchers have just unveiled a new sorting machine that could kick-start our grasp of how human life comes into being in the first few weeks. The system, created at the University of Washington in tandem with the Brotman Baty Institute, allows scientists to isolate these cellular models more efficiently than ever before.

Gastruloids are stem cell-derived models that replicate a key phase of early embryonic development: the third week of gestation, when the body’s three primary germ layers begin to form. Because the new model sidesteps the red-flagged ethical territory of working with real embryos, it offers a cleaner, simpler sandbox for scientists unwilling or unable to work with real embryos. 

“Researchers can grow arrays of hundreds of consistently sized gastruloids at a time within a few days, thus gastruloids are straightforward to manipulate and track for a variety of experiments,” said author Ian Jan.

“However, the lack of an automated sorting platform to isolate individual gastruloids hinders studies of the differences between each gastruloid.”

Read more 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First map of every neuron in an adult brain has been produced for a fruit fly

Image
Originally published by UK Research and Innovation on October 2, 2024   3D rendering of all ~140k neurons in the fruit fly brain. Credit: Data source: FlyWire.ai; Rendering by Philipp Schlegel (University of Cambridge/MRC LMB). The first wiring diagram of every neuron in an adult brain and the 50 million connections between them has been produced for a fruit fly . This landmark achievement has been conducted by a large international collaboration of scientists , called the FlyWire Consortium , including researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology ( in Cambridge, UK ), Princeton University, the University of Vermont and the University of Cambridge . It is published in a pair of papers in Nature . The diagram of all 139,255 neurons in the adult fly brain is the first of an entire brain for an animal that can walk and see . Previous efforts have completed the whole brain diagrams for much smaller brains , for example, for that of a fruit fly larva, whi...
Read more

Neuromorphic camera and machine learning aid nanoscopic imaging

Image
Neuromorphic camera and machine learning aid nanoscopic imaging by Indian Institute of Science Transformation of cumulative probability density of ON and OFF processes allows localisation below the limit of classical single particle detection. Credit: Mangalwedhekar et al In a new study, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) show how a brain-inspired image sensor can go beyond the diffraction limit of light to detect miniscule objects such as cellular components or nanoparticles invisible to current microscopes. Their novel technique, which combines optical microscopy with a neuromorphic camera and machine learning algorithms, presents a major step forward in pinpointing objects smaller than 50 nanometers in size. The results are published in Nature Nanotechnology. Original article  
Read more

Mapping ATP's journey: Key protein identified as gateway for energy delivery into endoplasmic reticulum

Image
Originally published by Stockholm University on May 21, 2025 edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan   Scientists reveal how ATP is transported into the ER by the protein SLC35B1. Credit: Surabhi Kokane using Biorender. A team of scientists has answered a long-standing question in cell biology , uncovering h ow the cell's main energy currency, ATP , is transported into the endoplasmic reticulum ( ER ) . Disrupted energy transport could affect diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders . The study, " Step-wise ATP translocation into the ER by human SLC35B1 " published in Nature , confirms that the transporter protein SLC35B1 is the key gateway for ATP entry into the ER . The research , led by David Drew, professor of biochemistry at Stockholm University and located at SciLifeLab , reveals the first structural and mechanistic insight into how ATP enters the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) using the transporter protein SL...
Read more