By Volker Paulun Biointegration the perfect bioplastics Researchers at the University of Tübin gen have modified the metabolic path way of specific cyanobacteria common ly known as blue green algae in such a way that they produce large quantities of the natural bioplastic polyhydroxybutyr ate PHB More than 80 percent of genet ically manipulated blue green algae con sists of PHB plastics PHB has the major advantage of not only being producible from renewable raw materials or biogenic residues but also being naturally degrad able by bacteria fungi or algae that may be modified as needed The researchers in Tübingen are now planning to optimize the utilization of bacteria further and to scale up the bacterial bioplastics factories for industrial use The cell clusters are moving around frantically in a petri dish They re so called Xenobots artificially created from tissue and stem cells of the frog Xen opus laevis from which their name derives With their C like shape they re reminiscent of the vid eo game character Pac Man The tiny creatures are propelled by extremely delicate cilia tiny hair like structures that were implemented in the Xe nobots by cell manipulation as well During their seemingly chaotic ride the microorganisms gather stem cells that look like grains of sand on a sheet of glass Soon after cell clusters that increasing ly resemble the original organisms start forming in front of their mouths The Xenobots are in the process of duplicating themselves This already marks their third evolution after previously having learned to move and to repair themselves Xenobots were created by a team of biologists at Tufts University in Boston USA and computer sci entists at the University of Vermont UVM A bio technology collaboration that has just begun We want Xenobots to do useful work Right now we re giving them simple tasks but ultimately we re aiming for a new kind of living tool that could for example clean up microplastics in the ocean or contaminants in soil says UVM robotics expert Josh Bongard In the foreseeable future Xenobots are also supposed to help deliver medications di rectly to the places in the body where they re most effective or help detect and treat diseases Xenobots are a good example of visionary biotech nology but by far not the only one The biologi zation of industry can lead to the same progress as digitalization does Prof Dr Ing Tim Hosenfeldt Senior Vice President Corporate Research and In novation Central Technology at Schaeffler is sure Even da Vinci used biotechnology Although biotechnology may sound like science fiction humans have been using it in production processes for a long time An example that s thou sands of years old is the utilization of yeasts in bread beer and wine production Today experts refer to biointegration or frequently also to white biotechnology in the context of incorporating ac tive biological components into technical process es and products A second field of biotechnology is bioinspiration or bionics in other words copying of natural prop erties for technical products and processes Leon ardo da Vinci 1452 1519 unsurprisingly is regarded as the first bionics scientist After hav ing extensively studied the flight of birds the uni versal genius designed flying devices helicopters and parachutes A farmer named Michael Kelly wanted to keep his livestock in check and copied a thornbush In 1868 he registered a patent for his barbed wire another example of early bion ics The first industrial robot named Unimate that was presented in 1959 bore an obvious resem blance to a human arm and was equally suitable 49 RESOURCES

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