Convergence: RAISE Dynamic Touch-based Bacteria-Device Two-Way Communication

生物细胞通过感知一系列刺激和提示并对其做出反应来与周围环境相互作用。在高等生物的组织中，细胞之间相互通信，从而产生集体功能。对哺乳动物细胞的电和机械通讯的研究导致了组织工程的进步，并使人们对神经和肌肉的工作原理有了更深入的了解。最终，这种理解可能会转化为可以恢复视力或运动能力的设备。这项研究项目将研究细菌细胞如何与电子设备表面进行机械和电子相互作用，细胞与细胞之间的相互作用如何在设备表面产生响应，以及来自设备的信号如何通过细菌细胞传递到其他细菌细胞。这些实验的结果可以进一步了解基于触摸的细菌通信如何被用来设计功能设备集成的细菌群落。这些研究工作可能会在微生物学、生物材料和纳米电子学的交汇处形成一门新的学科。通过促进药品和特种化学品、智能逻辑门控传感器和用于化学修复、能源转换和水净化的生物过滤器的制造，整合细菌的新设备的创造可以造福社会。研究活动将为劳动力发展增加一个新的方面，并将通过基于团队的研究、有针对性的研讨会和教育计划，培养来自马萨诸塞州大学内外的多样化的科学家社区。研究团队致力于通过为高中生开发跨学科教学模块和周末计划来激励不同的K-12学生。这项研究的目标是了解来自设备或材料的信号是如何传输到细菌并被细菌处理的，细胞间通信是如何被设备截获和重新编码的，以及细菌的机械转导和电压响应是如何在材料界面上发挥作用的。该项目从关注设备与孤立细胞的相互作用，到了解细胞组如何与设备相互作用。最终，这项研究将进一步理解该设备与整个细菌群落的相互作用。项目调查人员将量化与机械和电气相互作用相关的时间尺度、长度尺度和信号大小，目标是快速细菌-设备通信的基本原理。他们还将解决微生物学中的重要问题，包括确定与对给定刺激的初始反应相关的基因表达的变化，以及下游单细胞和群体行为的变化。这项研究项目整合了微生物学、生物材料和纳米电子学的尖端方法，以指导工程功能、设备集成的细菌群落的科学原则。这项研究项目还将影响新的显微镜、原型设备和基因活动细胞记录器的创建，这些将更广泛地推动科学的发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Biological cells interact with their surroundings by sensing and responding to a range of stimuli and cues. In the tissues of higher organisms, cells communicate with each other, leading to collective functions. Research on electrical and mechanical communication of mammalian cells has led to progress in tissue engineering and to an understanding of the workings of nerve and muscle. Eventually, this understanding might translate into devices that could restore sight or motor activity. This research project will study how bacterial cells interact mechanically and electrically with the surface of an electronic device, how cell-cell interactions produce a response at the device surface, and how signals from a device can be transmitted by bacterial cells to other bacterial cells. The outcomes of these experiments could further knowledge about how touch-based bacterial communication can be utilized to engineer functional device-integrated communities of bacteria. These research efforts could nucleate a new discipline at the intersection of microbiology, biomaterials, and nanoelectronics. The creation of new devices that integrate bacteria could benefit society through advancing the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals, smart logic-gated sensors, and bio-based filters for chemical remediation, energy conversion, and water purification. The research activities will add a new facet to workforce development and will foster a diverse community of scientists, internal and external to UMass, through team-based research, targeted workshops, and educational programs. The research team is committed to inspiring diverse K-12 students through the development of interdisciplinary teaching modules and weekend programs for high school students. This research project targets an understanding of how signals from a device or material are transmitted to and processed by bacteria, how intercellular communications can be intercepted and re-coded by devices, and how bacterial mechanotransduction and voltage responses play out at material interfaces. The program builds from a focus on device interactions with isolated cells to an understanding of how groups of cells interact with a device. Ultimately, the research will progress to a comprehension of the device interactions with an entire bacterial community. The project investigators will quantify timescales, length scales, and signal magnitudes relevant to mechanical and electrical interactions, targeting the basic principles of rapid bacterial-device communication. They will also address important issues in microbiology, including identifying changes in gene expression associated with the initial response to a given stimulus and in downstream single cell and group behaviors. This research project integrates cutting edge methods in microbiology, biomaterials, and nanoelectronics to target guiding scientific principles for engineering functional, device-integrated communities of bacteria. This research project also will impact the creation of new microscopy, prototype devices, and cellular reporters of gene activity that will more broadly advance science.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.