Chapter 17 - Robotics in Single-Cell Omics

Abstract

Evolution has produced a wide range of intelligent, mobile sensor units in the form of living organisms ranging from insects to humans. Compared to current robots, insects and other animals often have much more flexible and efficient control of their movements. Some researchers study organisms to develop better robots, while others build robots to better understand the organisms. Biorobotics, biomechanics, neural engineering, rehabilitation engineering, and robotics at single-cell level is progressing day by day. Cell theory provided an entirely new framework for understanding biology and disease by asserting that cells are the basic unit of life. Single-cell genomics aims to provide new perspectives to our understanding of genetics by bringing the study of genomes to the cellular level. Single-cell genomics identifies and assembles the genomes of unculturable microorganisms; evaluate the roles of genetic mosaicism in normal physiology and disease, and determine the contributions of intratumor genetic heterogeneity in cancer development or treatment response. The field of single-cell genomics is advancing rapidly and is generating many new insights into complex biological systems, ranging from the diversity of microbial ecosystems to the genomics of human cancer. This chapter covers recent technological advances that are providing unprecedented opportunities to analyze the complexities of biological systems at the single-cell level.