Special Issue on Bio Assembler

Research in a new field, the Hyper Bio Assembler for 3D Cellular Innovation, or Bio Assembler for short, started in July 2011 thanks to support from grants-in-aid for scientific research on innovative areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The Bio Assembler’s eventual objectives include creating innovative methodologies for building cellular 3D systems that function in vitro – an entirely new area not yet explored. The Bio Assembler is expected to measure and separate target cells at high speed to help in making possible the construction of cellular 3D systems in vitro and the clarification of the principles of ultrahigh-speed measurement and manipulation together with tissue function expression. Understanding the different aspects of cellular 3D systems and establishing technologies and techniques will enable these systems to be constructed, which will, in turn, enable breakthroughs in tissue engineering and biology, thereby establishing new technical areas in high-speed micro-nano robotics. This special issue on Bio Assembler reports the latest achievements in new research through 15 exciting papers and a letter selected based on a thorough-going peer review. We thank the authors for their invaluable perseverance and expertise and the reviewers for their insightful and timely comments. We also thank the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics editorial board for providing this opportunity to take part in making this special issue possible.