Living human skin grown around a robotic finger can bend with the finger (shown) and even heal itself when cut.

Robots that blend in with real people may be one step closer to reality.

A team of researchers has grown living human skin around a robotic finger. The goal is to someday build cyborgs appear truly human. Those robots could have more seamless interactions with people, the researchers say. That might prove useful in medical-care and service industries. But whether machines disguised as people would be more likable — or just plain creepy — is probably a matter of opinion.

Biohybrid engineer Shoji Takeuchi led the research. He and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo in Japan shared their new development June 9 in Matter.

Covering a robotic finger in living skin took a few steps. First, the researchers covered the finger in a blend of collagen and fibroblasts. Collagen is a protein found in human tissue. Fibroblasts are cells found in human skin. The mix of collagen and fibroblasts settled into a base layer of skin around the finger. That layer is called the dermis.

The team then poured a liquid onto the finger. This liquid contained human cells known as keratinocytes (Kair-ah-TIN-oh-sites). Those cells formed an outer layer of skin, or epidermis. After two weeks, this skin covering the robotic finger was a few millimeters (0.1 inch) thick. That’s about as thick as real human skin.

This lab-made skin was strong and stretchy. It didn’t break when the robot finger bent. It also could heal itself. The team tested this by making a small cut on the robotic finger. Then, they covered the wound with a collagen bandage. Fibroblast cells on the finger merged the bandage with the rest of the skin within a week.

“This is very interesting work and an important step forward in the field,” says Ritu Raman. She’s an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She was not involved in the research. But she, too, builds machines with living parts.

“Biological materials are appealing because they can … sense and adapt to their environments,” Raman says. In the future, she’d like to see living robot skin embedded with nerve cells to help robots sense their surroundings.

But a cyborg couldn’t wear the current lab-grown skin out and about just yet. The robot finger spent most of its time soaking in a soup of nutrients that cells need to survive. So, a robot wearing this skin would have to bathe often in a nutrient broth. Or it would need some other complex skin care routine.

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cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells.

collagen: A fibrous protein found in bones, cartilage, tendons and other connective tissues.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

cyborg: A living organism that has been given with electronic enhancements.

dermis: The middle layer of skin, which contains blood vessels to feed skin cells and keep them warm.

engineer: A person who uses science to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need. (v.) To perform these tasks, or the name for a person who performs such tasks.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

epidermis: The outermost layer of skin.

fibroblast: A type of cell found in connective tissue; it makes and releases proteins important in wound healing.

nutrient: A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

protein: A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Among the better-known, stand-alone proteins are the hemoglobin (in blood) and the antibodies (also in blood) that attempt to fight infections. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

robot: A machine that can sense its environment, process information and respond with specific actions. Some robots can act without any human input, while others are guided by a human.

tissue: Made of cells, it is any of the distinct types of materials that make up animals, plants or fungi. Cells within a tissue work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues.

Journal:​ M. Kawai et al. Living skin on a robot. Matter. Vol. 5, July 6, 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2022.05.019.

Maria Temming is the assistant editor at Science News for Students. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.

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