Ceramic Living Fibers by Electrospinning

工程生物材料(ELM)被认为是当代材料科学和工程中最相关的革命之一。ELMS的目标是超越目前“智能”、活性或多功能材料的例子，从而实现无数的工业和社会应用，在这些应用中，“活的”材料提高了自主性、智能反应、自我修复，甚至自我复制。目前的大多数ELM主要由自制的聚合物制成，要么是蛋白质，要么是多糖，这些聚合物往往机械性能较差，限制了它们在几种高性能工程解决方案中的使用。CERA-LIFE项目首次致力于开发工程活陶瓷纤维，这是一种新型的榆树，可以超过现有生物榆树的机械性能。CERA-LIFE的一般概念包括静电纺丝辅助将解脲细菌包裹在纤维中，其中细菌驱动的生物矿化将把纤维转化为活的陶瓷纤维。在DFG Nachwuchsakademie“工程生物材料”框架下，CEERA-LIFE为该项目的成功实施确定了以下目标：(I)在电纺纤维中成功展示解脲细菌，这种纤维含有生物矿化所必需的化学成分，同时通过高细胞负载量促进细胞长期存活，以及(Ii)表征纤维的渐进生物矿化，并展示活陶瓷纤维的高机械性能。该项目的成果将作为未来DFG提案的基础，该提案将进一步探索活陶瓷纤维的基本和应用方面。

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are considered among the most relevant contemporary revolutions in materials science and engineering. ELMs aim to outperform current examples of “smart,” active, or multifunctional materials and, hence, enable countless industrial and societal applications in which the “alive” materials improve autonomy, intelligent responses, self-repair, and even self-replication. Most of the current ELMs are primarily made of self-produced polymers, either proteins or polysaccharides, which often suffer from poor mechanical properties, restricting their use in several high-performance engineering solutions. The Cera-LiFE project, for the first time, aims to develop engineered living ceramic fibers, a novel class of ELMs, that can outperform the mechanical properties of current biological ELMs. The general concept of Cera-LiFE includes electrospinning-assisted encapsulation of ureolytic bacteria within fibers, where the bacteria-driven biomineralization will transform the fibers into living ceramic fibers. Under the DFG Nachwuchsakademie "Engineered Living Materials" framework, Cera-LiFE identifies the following objectives for the successful execution of the project: (i) successful demonstration of ureolytic bacteria within electrospun fibers, which contain essential chemical ingredients for biomineralization and yet facilitate long cell viability with high cell loading, and (ii) characterize the progressive biomineralization of the fibers and demonstrate the high mechanical performances of the living ceramic fibers. The project results will serve as the foundation of a future DFG proposal which will explore further fundamental and applied aspects of living ceramic fibers.