EAGER: (ST2) Using Principles of Synthetic Ecology to Design Communicating Colonies

生物微生物已经发展出复杂的机制，作为一个社区来执行一系列对其生存至关重要的集体任务。受微生物群落中互动行为的启发，研究人员正在开发计算模型，以设计共享信息的合成材料系统，并通过这种通信执行协调一致的功能。该研究可以促进自我报告、自我调节材料的开发，这些材料不仅在系统偏离正常操作条件或“稳态”时发出信号，而且还将系统恢复到稳态条件。这种自我调节系统将导致能源效率的大幅提高，因为它们不需要外部干预来维持其功能。这些受生物启发的自主功能材料还可以为软机器人领域带来变革性的变化，从而能够制造小规模的交互式设备，这些设备在没有外部刺激的情况下合作执行特定功能。参与该项目的学生和博士后研究人员正在参与一个高度跨学科的领域，并通过他们的研究努力积极学习和合成合成生物学，生物材料和软物质的边界的新思想。特别是，他们将采用合成生态学的方法，其目的是通过构建新的功能社区来了解微生物菌落，以确定控制合成通信材料中相互作用的因素。合成生态学领域仍处于起步阶段，构成了科学的新前沿;通过培训下一代劳动力和开发新的建模方法，研究团队可以对这一新兴领域的发展产生重大影响。此外，通过将合成生态学的概念应用于合成材料，研究人员将开发新的材料研究方法。技术说明：研究旨在设计“通信材料”：1）自我报告和自我调节，2）响应环境变化进化其属性，3）共享信息以执行一系列协作功能。尽管在活性软物质和自推进粒子方面取得了进展，但很少有合成系统模仿这些生物活性模式。NSF ST 2研讨会的结论是，这种通信材料系统为解决生物材料，软物质和合成生物学交叉点的基本问题提供了一个有用的结构。此外，实现通信材料可以为新的技术进步铺平道路。研究人员专门使用理论和模拟来设计来自实验可实现的合成微胶囊的通信材料，这些微胶囊通过可行的物理和化学现象相互作用。这项工作正在产生新的计算模型，包括三维胶囊组件的空间和时间行为;胶囊和周围溶液之间的流体动力学相互作用;以及胶囊内和外部溶液中发生的化学反应。这些模型还结合了模拟生物细胞中调控网络的反馈回路。使用这些方法，研究人员正在确定触发合成胶囊交换化学信息的条件，并通过这种通信执行协调一致的功能。这些研究有可能阐明基本的物理和化学现象，这些现象在生物细胞之间的信号传导和通信中起着至关重要的作用。值得注意的是，生物和合成通信系统都消耗能量并在不平衡的情况下运行。控制通信的自组织和集体动力学的研究，互动胶囊可以提供急需的指导方针，利用耗散，非平衡行为的生物启发，物理系统。通过确定支撑生物微生物群落行为的基本物理化学原理，这些研究可以为了解生命系统的物理学和生命起源时原始细胞群落的组织结构提供一个窗口。材料研究部（DMR）的这一资助项目支持开展研究，以了解和开发包含由凝聚态物理学（CMP）管理的细胞群落的通信材料该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical Description:Biological microbes have developed complex mechanisms for working as a community to perform a range of collective tasks crucial to their survival. Inspired by the interactive behavior in microbial communities, the researcher is developing computational models to design synthetic materials systems that share information and through this communication, perform concerted functions. The research can facilitate the development of self-reporting, self-regulating materials that not only signal when the system deviates from normal operating conditions or “homeostasis”, but also restore the system to homeostatic conditions. Such self-regulating systems will lead to dramatic increases in energy efficiency since they do not require external intervention to maintain their functionality. These bio-inspired autonomously functioning materials can also bring about transformative changes in the field of soft robotics, enabling the fabrication of small-scale, interactive devices that cooperate to perform specified functions in the absence of external stimuli. The students and postdoctoral researchers involved in the project are participating in a highly interdisciplinary field, and through their research efforts are actively learning and synthesizing new ideas at the boundaries of synthetic biology, biomaterials and soft matter. In particular, they will be adapting the approaches of synthetic ecology, which aims to understand microbial colonies by constructing new functioning communities, to determine factors controlling interactions in the synthetic communicating materials. The field of synthetic ecology is still in its infancy and constitutes a new frontier in science; by training the next generation workforce and developing new modeling approaches, the research team can make a significant impact in the growth of this burgeoning area. Moreover, by applying concepts from synthetic ecology to synthetic materials, the investigators will develop new approaches for performing materials research.Technical Description:The research aims to design “communicating materials” that: 1) are self-reporting and self-regulating, 2) evolve their properties in response to environmental changes, and 3) share information to perform a range of collaborative functions. Despite advances in active soft matter and self-propelled particles, few synthetic systems mimic these modes of biological activity. The NSF ST2 workshop concluded that such communicating materials systems provide a useful construct for addressing fundamental questions that lie at the intersection of biomaterials, soft matter and synthetic biology. Furthermore, the realization of communicating materials can pave the way to new technological advances. The investigator is specifically using theory and simulation to design communicating materials from experimentally realizable synthetic microcapsules that interact through viable physical and chemical phenomenon. The work is yielding new computational models that encompass both the spatial and temporal behavior of assemblies of three-dimensional capsules; the hydrodynamic interactions between the capsules and surrounding solution; and chemical reactions occurring both within the capsules and in the outer solution. These models also incorporate feedback loops that mimic regulatory networks in biological cells. Using these approaches, the investigator is determining conditions that trigger the synthetic capsules to exchange chemical information and through this communication, perform concerted functions. The studies have the potential to elucidate fundamental physical and chemical phenomena that play a vital role in signaling and communication among biological cells. Notably, both the biological and synthetic communicating systems dissipate energy and operate out-of-equilibrium. Research on controlling the self-organization and collective dynamics of the communicating, interactive capsules can provide much-needed guidelines for harnessing dissipative, non-equilibrium behavior in bio-inspired, physical systems. By determining fundamental physicochemical principles that underpin behavior in biological microbial communities, these studies can provide a window into the physics of living systems and organization of primitive cellular communities at the origin of life.This Division of Materials Research (DMR) grant supports research to understand and develop communicating materials that incorporate cell communities managed by the Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) Program in DMR of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.