Engineering living building materials for enhanced bacterial viability and mechanical properties

Qiu, Jishen; Artier, Juliana; Cook, Sherri M.; Srubar, Wil V.; Cameron, Jeffrey C.; Hubler, Mija H.

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102083

Cited by 42 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) was early to identify the innovative potential of ELMs and initiated a specific funding program [ 372 ]. DARPA supported research groups and companies developing ELMs as living building materials [ 78 , 373 ]. Also, the U.S. National Science Foundation specifically funds research on ELMs in the frame of its prestigious Idea Machine program.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Burgos-Morales

Gueye

Lacombe

et al. 2021

Materials Today Bio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Materials in nature have fascinating properties that serve as a continuous source of inspiration for materials scientists. Accordingly, bio-mimetic and bio-inspired approaches have yielded remarkable structural and functional materials for a plethora of applications. Despite these advances, many properties of natural materials remain challenging or yet impossible to incorporate into synthetic materials. Natural materials are produced by living cells, which sense and process environmental cues and conditions by means of signaling and genetic programs, thereby controlling the biosynthesis, remodeling, functionalization, or degradation of the natural material. In this context, synthetic biology offers unique opportunities in materials sciences by providing direct access to the rational engineering of how a cell senses and processes environmental information and translates them into the properties and functions of materials. Here, we identify and review two main directions by which synthetic biology can be harnessed to provide new impulses for the biologization of the materials sciences: first, the engineering of cells to produce precursors for the subsequent synthesis of materials. This includes materials that are otherwise produced from petrochemical resources, but also materials where the bio-produced substances contribute unique properties and functions not existing in traditional materials. Second, engineered living materials that are formed or assembled by cells or in which cells contribute specific functions while remaining an integral part of the living composite material. We finally provide a perspective of future scientific directions of this promising area of research and discuss science policy that would be required to support research and development in this field.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Burgos-Morales

Gueye

Lacombe

et al. 2021

Materials Today Bio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[42,141,159,160] The autonomous expansion of engineered living hydrogels indicates their potential applications in cost-effective manufacturing and scalable building materials. [160,161] Another critical capability of cell-produced materials is to repair damaged materials. [26,141,160,[162][163][164][165][166] The metabolites involved in microbial cells can heal cracks in matrix materials.…”

Section: Influence Of Living Cells On Hydrogel Repair and Reinforcementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[ 42,141,159,160 ] The autonomous expansion of engineered living hydrogels indicates their potential applications in cost‐effective manufacturing and scalable building materials. [ 160,161 ]…”

Section: Influence Of Living Cells On Hydrogelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineered Living Hydrogels

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Living biological systems, ranging from single cells to whole organisms, can sense, process information, and actuate in response to changing environmental conditions. Inspired by living biological systems, engineered living cells and nonliving matrices are brought together, which gives rise to the technology of engineered living materials. By designing the functionalities of living cells and the structures of nonliving matrices, engineered living materials can be created to detect variability in the surrounding environment and to adjust their functions accordingly, thereby enabling applications in health monitoring, disease treatment, and environmental remediation. Hydrogels, a class of soft, wet, and biocompatible materials, have been widely used as matrices for engineered living cells, leading to the nascent field of engineered living hydrogels. Here, the interactions between hydrogel matrices and engineered living cells are described, focusing on how hydrogels influence cell behaviors and how cells affect hydrogel properties. The interactions between engineered living hydrogels and their environments, and how these interactions enable versatile applications, are also discussed. Finally, current challenges facing the field of engineered living hydrogels for their applications in clinical and environmental settings are highlighted.

show abstract

“…Hydrogel has been used as the binder for building material in recent works [5], [6]. Hydrogels represent a class of materials that have crosslinked three-dimensional networks formed by cross-linked polymer (often hydrophobic), which can absorb and maintain water or water-based solutions [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The xerogel-based material (XBM) can be made by mixing a minor amount of polymer powders with water (available as ice on Mars) to form a hydrosol or hydrogel, which can be hardened into xerogel to bind sand particles (from Martian regolith). 1 m 3 XBM prototype only requires approximately 20 kg of Earth-born polymer, which maximizes the in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) [6]. As Figure 1 shows, water in hydrogel might exist as a liquid, vapor, or ice state and transform among them at the Martian temperature and air pressure ranges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Xerogel-based building material (XBM): potential for construction on Mars base and other resourceless sites

Liu

Qiu

2022

Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials XVI

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mars colonization is coming sooner than we think as transformative development of deep space exploration technologies. Special construction material for building on mars is required to overcome challenges like cold and almost vacuum environments, limited resources, etc. We propose a new composite that uses xerogel to bind sand particles to be used as the building materials for the Mars base. As the xerogel can be made by mixing minor polymer into water (available as ice), the xerogel-based building material (XBM) can maximize the in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of XBM. First, we developed the XBM prototypes, 1 m 3 of which requires only around 20 kg of Earth-born raw materials. Second, we mechanically tested XBM cubes after curing them under terrestrial environment (room temperature and approximately 1 atm.) or Mars-like environment (-55 °C and 0.00001 atm.), which achieved an average compressive strength of 5.18 MPa and 2.88 MPa respectively; our numerical simulation showed that the mechanical strength would be adequate for sustaining an apartment-size dome under the lower gravity on Mars (1/3 g). Third, we examine the microstructure of XBM, where the xerogel (or aerogel if cured under low temperature and air pressure) between the sand particles is demonstrated as cellular structures; we used discrete element model (DEM) to simulate the compression failure of XBM, which indicates that the mechanical strength of the prototypes may be further enhanced by tailoring the cellular microstructure.

show abstract

Engineering living building materials for enhanced bacterial viability and mechanical properties

Cited by 42 publications

References 43 publications

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Engineered Living Hydrogels

Xerogel-based building material (XBM): potential for construction on Mars base and other resourceless sites

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About