What’s the significance of the new research finding?

A research team in Japan said Friday that it has succeeded in replicating contraction and stretching in a small muscle grown from rat cells, local media reported Friday. The development, to be detailed at an international conference in the United States starting Sunday, is expected to prove useful in the field of regenerative medicine, Kyodo reported Friday. "It could also lead to the development of robots able to move naturally using muscles," said the team leader Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo.