Biofabrication should be sustainable

Today, we can assemble living cells from mammals to rebuild pieces of tissue in the lab to study biology, to replace parts of the human body that have been damaged and to test drugs. We can also make animal tissue that we can eat (such as in vitro meat), use cells to detect substances, clean contaminated environments and employ bacteria to close cracks in walls. We can even use cells to build microrobots that nimbly navigate complex environments or to study the motion of living beings without relying on animal experimentation. ^2,3

Intriguingly, living cells are made of soft, biodegradable components and can autonomously replicate themselves. They extract energy from glucose and other eco-friendly fuels, function silently and with a high degree of energetic efficiency. Thus, borrowing cells from nature is not just a leap forward in technology but a step towards a more environmentally friendly future, as the resulting bio-hybrid systems can perform tasks more efficiently and sustainably than their purely synthetic counterparts.