JD.com (JD AI Research) is a corporate investor based in China.
Researchers at the University of Oxford developed a humanoid robotic bioreactor that reproduces human-like shoulder abduction-adduction motions for tendon tissue engineering, demonstrating that multiaxial mechanical stimulation more effectively enhances cell alignment and activates the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway compared to conventional uniaxial stretching. The platform integrates a flexible strain sensor for real-time monitoring and enables direct comparison of cellular behaviors under multiaxial versus uniaxial stimulation. The study provides a mechanobiological basis for developing more physiologically relevant tendon grafts by showing that biomimetic multiaxial loading can reshape cellular mechanosensing and promote early tendon-related biological responses.