BRITE Fellow: Rigid Engineered Living Materials

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This Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) Fellow grant will establish basic scientific and design approaches needed to combine materials used in engineering applications (plastics, metals, ceramics, etc.) with living organisms (bacteria). The addition of living cells to engineering materials has the potential to instill biological traits (growth, healing, etc.) to the materials used to make vehicles, buildings, and commercial products. In particular, the ability of living cells to continuously repair a material has the potential to reduce financial and environmental costs generated when worn parts/devices are repaired or replaced. The creation of new longer-lasting materials has the potential to reduce energy needs associated with material manufacturing which are responsible for 25 percent of global carbon emissions. In addition to advancing engineering science, the work includes efforts to maintain US leadership in technology by increasing domestic engineering talent pools through broadening participation by members of underrepresented groups. Specifically, the efforts involve building a network of engineering faculty to coordinate volunteer service, mentorship and advocacy toward the long-term goal of achieving demographic parity in engineering by the US Hispanic population.Most convergent research spanning engineering and biology focuses on the use of engineering principals to address challenges in biology. In contrast, this BRITE Fellow project focuses on the transformative concept of using biological systems to address challenges in engineering. This project seeks to advance the field of Engineered Living Materials by focusing on the design and function of rigid, load carrying materials functionalized by the presence of living organisms. The project addresses the following research questions: (i) What design principles are required to maintain viability of resident cells within rigid engineered materials? (ii) What are the best ways to populate or repopulate a rigid material using living cells? (iii) What existing manufacturing techniques can be used to create materials easily populated by bacteria? and (iv) How could mechanically sensitive bacteria be used within the materials to sense mechanical damage? The research uses a naturally occurring rigid living material, bone, as a biological inspiration. Nanofluidic devices are used to identify functional design principles for channel morphology, nutrient delivery, and the utility of externally applied fluid pressure and/or mechanical loading. The findings will be applicable across several classes of rigid materials (polymers, metals, ceramics) and several types of cells researched for use in engineered living materials (bacteria, fungi, microalgae, etc.).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.