NSF Science and Technology Center: Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems

集成蜂窝系统应急行为STC(EBICS)将开发所需的科学和技术，以设计具有预期功能并可以执行规定任务的活细胞群(也称为生物机器)。这些机器将由传感、信息处理、驱动、蛋白质表达和运输元素组成，这些元素可以有效地结合在一起，创建功能单元。据设想，这些生物机器将执行以下任务：检测环境中的毒素并将其中和的处理系统；感知并响应对水和营养的需求的智能植物；用来代替动物测试新药的替代器官；以及在连续的流动过程中隔离二氧化碳的生物工厂。拟议的STC的智力优势在于实现了工程生物系统领域，该领域寻求了解细胞系统如何在由生化因素和物理刺激组成的局部微环境线索的控制下相互作用以产生协调的、紧急的行为。最近，很多注意力都集中在创造单细胞机器或工厂的研究上。虽然这样的单细胞机器有着巨大的前景，但将大量专门的细胞整合到一个单一的整合单元中的多细胞系统的潜在影响要大得多。对细胞-细胞和细胞-基质相互作用的新见解和理解是实现这一目标的关键，这将需要新的技术平台来连接分子尺度的相互作用与复杂生物系统的宏观行为。EBICS的广泛影响包括在细胞、细胞网络和细胞群体水平上显著提高对综合生化和物理线索下的紧急生物行为的理解；以及一个将吸引更多年轻学生进入科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)，特别是生物和工程之间的交叉学科领域的推广和知识转移计划。该中心通过与少数群体服务机构的联盟和与这些机构的积极合作研究计划，将改善代表人数不足的少数群体在STEM中的参与情况。EBICS教育计划包括一个双轨、综合的研究生课程，有效地融合了所需的基本科学和技术，一个研究生教学联盟，通过互联网在所有合作机构同步提供精选课程，以及通过实习提供国际经验。EBICS开发的研究生课程将被记录下来，并通过开放式课程软件广泛和免费地提供。这项研究的新颖性和革命性将吸引最优秀和最聪明的学生进入该项目，并增强未来美国劳动力-S在全球经济中的竞争力。基于该中心的应用-S潜在的发现将直接影响国家的关键需求，如能源、环境、安全和医疗保健。拟议的STC的愿景显然与国家研究和教育战略优先事项保持一致。

The STC on Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) will develop the science and technology needed to engineer clusters of living cells (also called biological machines) that have desired functionalities and can perform prescribed tasks. These machines will consist of sensing, information processing, actuation, protein expression, and transport elements that can be effectively combined to create functional units. It is envisioned that these biological machines will perform tasks such as processing systems that detect toxins in the environment and neutralize them; smart plants that sense and respond to the need for water and nutrients, surrogate organs that are used in place of animals to test new drugs; and biological factories that sequester CO2 in a continuous flow process. Intellectual merit of the proposed STC lies in the realization of the field of engineered biological systems that seeks to understand how cell systems interact to produce coordinated, emergent behavior under the control of local micro-environmental cues consisting of biochemical factors and physical stimuli. Recently, much attention has focused on research into the creation of single-cell machines or factories. While such uni-cellular machines hold enormous promise, the potential impact of multi-cellular systems that incorporate populations of specialized cells assembled into a single integrated unit is far greater. New insights and understanding into cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions are critical to attaining this goal, and this will require new technological platforms to bridge molecular scale interactions with macroscale behavior of complex biological systems. The proposed research direction is truly transformative and revolutionary at the interface of science and engineering.Broader impacts of EBICS include the potential to significantly enhance the understanding of emergent biological behaviors under integrated biochemical and physical cues at the cellular, cell network, and cell population levels; and an outreach and knowledge transfer program that will attract more young students into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and particularly into the interdisciplinary field between biology and engineering. The center, through its alliance with minority serving institutions and active collaborative research plans with those institutions will improve the participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM. The EBICS education plan includes a two-track, integrated graduate program that effectively merges the essential sciences and technologies needed, a graduate teaching consortium to offer a selection of courses synchronously in all partnering institutions via the internet, and international experiences by internships. Graduate courses developed by EBICS will be recorded and made widely and freely accessible through OpenCourseWare. The novel and revolutionary nature of the research will attract the best and the brightest students into this program and strengthen the future US workforce?s competitiveness in a global economy. Applications based on the Center?s potential discoveries will have direct impact on critical national needs such as energy, the environment, security, and healthcare. The vision of the proposed STC is clearly aligned with the national research and education strategic priorities.