Robomatka for mice
AI babysitter takes care of the mice in an artificial uterus
Maria Tolmacheva, XX2 century
Researchers from China have developed a system based on artificial intelligence (AI) that monitors developing mouse embryos in real time and takes care of them while they grow in an artificial womb. The robot constantly measures key indicators of embryo development, such as the level of carbon dioxide or nutrients, and adjusts them accordingly for optimal growth. Although the technology is being tested on mice, it is quite possible that someday people will be born in a similar way - with the help of an artificial surrogate uterus. In the meantime, the path to this is blocked by many not only technical, but also ethical problems.
In the last decade, the issue of ex-utero gestation — that is, carrying an unborn baby outside the body, using an artificial uterus — has been receiving great attention. For example, in 2017, scientists from the United States developed an artificial uterus filled with a substance that mimics amniotic fluid, in which premature lambs ripened safely for four weeks. This "bio bag" can change the appearance of neonatal intensive care units, giving premature babies born before 24 weeks a chance of survival.
Currently, children born before 22 weeks have no hope of survival. Even older premature newborns have too little chance, because their heart and lungs are not yet fully developed to function outside the womb, even if they are assisted by life support systems in neonatal units. Even those who survived may have complications, the consequences of which will remain with these people for life. Ideally, such children should be immediately transferred to an artificial uterus after childbirth in order to continue their development until they become healthy enough.
In addition to saving premature babies, artificial wombs are also of interest because they allow women to give birth to children without birth-related injuries. Many women get some kind of injury during childbirth, including muscle tears, lifelong urinary incontinence, organ damage or pelvic bone fractures. In extreme cases, some women in labor experience severe birth complications, including heart attacks, kidney failure and aneurysms, which can be life-threatening for both mother and child. In addition, childbirth has psychological consequences that are associated with postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The fact that the demand for surrogacy is growing tells us that artificial queens may have a future. In gestational surrogacy, the eggs of the biological mother are fertilized with the sperm of the father or donor, and then the embryo is placed in the uterus of the surrogate mother, who carries the child to term and gives birth to it. However, surrogacy does not solve the problems associated with childbirth or prenatal babies — it simply shifts these risks to a third party.
This is where artificial wombs can come to the rescue, and this technology — although it cannot yet be used for human childbirth (even if it were legal) — it is developing rapidly. In 2019, researchers from China grew a monkey embryo from the stage of a fertilized egg to the stage of organ formation inside a synthetic uterus, which was the first time that a primate embryo developed for so long outside the mother's body.
Now researchers from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology have published an article in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering, in which they described an AI that monitors embryos as they develop into a fetus and regulates key parameters for optimal growth. In this case, an artificial uterus — scientists call it a "device for long—term embryo cultivation" - grows several mouse embryos in cuboid cases filled with all the nutrient fluids necessary for the development of embryos.
Graphical representation of the artificial uterus system.
This type of extrauterine development of embryos requires careful observation, since the needs of the embryo may differ depending on the stage of its growth. Manually regulating the development process would be a cumbersome task and fraught with errors, the so-called "human factor". But the robotic system automatically monitors and regulates the embryo development environment in real time and around the clock.
In addition, the robot takes ultra-sharp images of various depths at key moments of development. Such monitoring can, for example, reveal important information about the stages of development of the human embryo, which have not yet been sufficiently investigated. However, international laws prohibit research on human embryos for more than two weeks — everything that is done with older embryos is considered unethical, although this position may change if the public benefits of such research significantly outweigh the considerations against.
In general, this AI and embryo development system are not a real artificial uterus, since mouse embryos are not grown to live cubs, but this is a step forward in the right direction, a proof of concept that can greatly change our society.
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