Young Researcher: Lecturer Minghao NIE

Lecturer, Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology / Department of Mechano-Informatics, Faculty of Engineering | Takeuchi-Nie Laboratory (Biohybrid System Laboratory)

Biography

About My Research

My research fuses the making technologies of mechanical and information engineering—microfabrication, 3D printing, and robotics—with biotechnology. The goal is to grow “cultured tissues” from living cells into sizes and shapes never achieved before.
Cells stay healthy only where nutrients and oxygen can reach them, so building thick tissue is surprisingly hard. To solve this, I developed a way to arrange hair-thin hollow fibers—artificial blood vessels—in regular arrays that deliver nutrients throughout the tissue, making it possible to grow thick, large, and uniform cultured muscle. This matters beyond food: muscle is also an actuator, a power source for robots. Growing it larger translates directly into biohybrid robots that can exert greater force.
I am also developing ways to wrap cultured skin snugly around the curved surfaces of robots, such as fingers and faces. By mimicking the skin ligaments that fasten our skin to the body beneath it, these tiny “anchor” structures stably fix contraction-prone cultured skin onto complex three-dimensional shapes. Beyond enabling robots that both look human and heal themselves, the same living-skin model is valuable for developing and testing cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
Fusing mechanical and information engineering with biotechnology to “build things out of living materials” opens up wide application: cellular agriculture that produces meat without raising animals, regenerative medicine, and a new class of biohybrid robots that carry the softness and self-healing ability of living systems.

Living bodies are built on a completely different principle from machines made of iron, plastic, or rubber. Our skin, for instance, renews itself entirely in about 30 days, repairs itself when injured, and organizes its own form in response to its environment. I want to give the machines we build that same power of self-healing and self-organization. I work every day dreaming of the day when the science fiction I grew up watching becomes reality. Working across the borders of engineering, information science, and biology, I hope to build—together with the next generation of researchers—a new discipline of manufacturing endowed with the functions of living systems.

I came to Japan from China. People often ask where my surname 聶 (Nie) comes from. My best guess is that my ancestors had three ears (耳). I do love Osamu Tezuka’s The Three-Eyed One…

I have followed football for over 20 years, and my heart belongs to Inter Milan. The ongoing World Cup 2026 is full of wonderful matches! I hope Inter’s Lautaro can win!

I watch films from all over the world, and Kurosawa is my great love; I have watched most of his works. Watching that many films eventually pulled me toward the tool on the other side of the lens: the camera. Change the light or the framing, and the same subject shows a completely different face. That is what drew me in. And it turns out that instinct is surprisingly useful in the lab. When I photograph cultured tissue, I catch myself asking the same question: how do I light this, and how do I frame it :)

Media Interviews (euronews): Scientists put living skin on robot that can heal when cut and has wrinkles too

Nature (News, 16 April 2025): Winner, winner, lab-made dinner! Team grows nugget-sized chicken chunk　

Nature (Research Highlight, 631, 11, 27 June 2024): Smile! Living skin helps robot make a happy face　

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of the interview.