CAREER:Engineering Microbial Swarmbots

基于工程细胞的传感器和执行器在医学、环境清理和生物技术等领域具有巨大的应用潜力。然而，它们的应用由于缺乏可控性和可扩展性而受到限制。为了应对这一挑战，拟议的研究旨在开发一种独特的平台技术——微生物群机器人，它集成了合成生物学和生物材料工程。群集机器人由自主调节的小细菌群组成，这些细菌群被封装在由合成或天然聚合物制成的微胶囊中。拟议的研究将展示与实际相关的传感器和执行器集成的群集机器人。由此产生的平台具有几个独特的设计特点：(1)可编程性和模块化：微胶囊的特性和电路功能可以独立设计和优化，这有利于“即插即用”集成的广泛应用。(2)安全性：系统设计中嵌入多层保护机制-从胶囊中逃逸的细菌被编程为死亡。这一战略直接解决了在医疗或环境应用中使用活细菌的问题。(3)稳定性和效率：微胶囊化将减少突变体接管的可能性（通过将细菌群体划分为被封装的“微菌落”），从而增强基因回路的整体遗传稳定性。

0953202YouEngineered cell-based sensors and actuators have great potential for diverse applications in medicine, environmental cleanup, and biotechnology. Their applications, however, have been limited by their lack of controllability and scalability. To address this challenge, the proposed research aims to develop a unique platform technology -- microbial swarmbots, which integrates synthetic biology and biomaterials engineering. A swarmbot consists of autonomously regulated, small bacterialpopulations that are encapsulated in microcapsules built from synthetic or natural polymers. The proposed research will demonstrate the integration of the swarmbots with sensors and actuators of practical relevance.The resulting platform has several distinctive design features: (1) Programmability & modularity: microcapsule properties and circuit functions can be independently designed and optimized, which facilitates "plug-n-play" integration for broad applications. (2) Safety: Multi-layer safeguard mechanisms are embedded in system design - bacteria escaping from capsules are programmed to die. This strategy directly addresses the concern on using live bacteria for medical or environmental applications. (3) Stability and efficiency: Micro-encapsulation will reduce the probability of mutants taking over (by partitioning the bacterial populations into encapsulated "microcolonies"), thus enhancing overall genetic stability of gene circuits.