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44 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2024 look at your costs for water and waste treat- ment should allow you to quickly determine whether the extra expenditure involved for this type of system is justified. Note: A further environmental benefit can come from using an ion exchange column. It will periodically need to be regenerated as the copper levels inside build up. is is usually done by backwashing with a sulfuric acid solu- tion, resulting in a concentrated copper sulfate solution. is solution can be transferred to an electrolytic cell, and the copper can be recov- ered, so virtually no copper goes into the waste treatment flow. When we showed this to our local waste treatment authority inspector, he was so ecstatic about it that he forgot to do the rest of the inspection. As everybody knows, a well-disposed and friendly environmental inspector is a good thing. PCB007 Don Ball is a process engineer at Chemcut. To read past columns or contact Ball, click here. Ultraviolet-laser processing is a promising tech- nique for developing intricate microstructures, enabling complex alignment of muscle cells, required for building life-like biohybrid actuators, as shown by Tokyo Tech researchers. Compared to traditional complex methods, this innovative technique enables easy and quick fabrication of microstructures with intricate patterns for achieving different muscle cell arrangements, paving the way for biohybrid actua- tors capable of complex, flexible movements. A team of researchers from Tokyo Institute of Tech- nology (Tokyo Tech) in Japan, led by Associate Pro- fessor Toshinori Fujie from the School of Life Science and Technology, has developed an ultraviolet (UV) laser-processing technique for fabricating complex microstructures. "Based on our previous prototypes, we hypothesized that biohybrid actuators using an SBS (hard rubber) thin film with arbitrary anisotropic MGs fabricated by a UV laser process can control cellular alignment in an arbitrarily anisotropic direc- tion to reproduce more lifelike flexible movements," explains Dr. Fujie. Their study has been published in the journal Biofabrication. The novel technique includes forming curved MGs on a polyimide through UV-laser processing, which are then transcribed onto a thin film made of SBS. Next, skeletal muscle cells called myotubes, found in living organisms, are aligned using the MGs to achieve an anisotropic curved muscle pattern. The researchers used this method to develop two differ- ent biohybrid actuators: one tethered to the glass substrate and the other untethered. Upon electri- cal stimulation, both actuators deformed through a twisting-like motion. Interestingly, the biohybrid actuator when untethered transformed into a 3D free-standing structure, due to the curved alignment of myotubes like a native sphincter. "These results signify that compared to traditional methods, using a UV-laser is a quicker and easier method for the fabrication of tunable MG patterns. This method raises intriguing opportunities for achiev- ing more life-like biohybrid actuators through guided alignment of myotubes," remarks Dr. Fujie, emphasiz- ing the potential of this innovative technique. (Source: Tokyo Institute of Technology) A Novel Method for Easy and Quick Fabrication of Biomimetic Robots with Lifelike Movement