Living Interfaces: Exploring Synthetic Biology and Evolution for the Development of Next-Generation Biomaterials

该提案寻求支持学术界和供资机构的主要专家参与，以探讨生物材料在合成生物学和合成生物学中的作用，以及进化对开发下一代生物材料的作用。研讨会的主题是“生活界面”-理解和控制界面的紧急生物样秩序和功能，在远离平衡的合成生物材料系统。 我们的目的是利用在方桌研讨会期间的会谈和讨论中出现的结果编写一份报告，该报告捕捉了这个快速增长的研究领域的兴奋和希望，供各个社区和机构用作路线图。 该提案将于2018年12月3日这一周的前半部分在弗吉尼亚州亚历山大市举行研讨会。 该方桌将邀请来自生物材料、合成生物学和分子进化社区的代表，以及资助机构、监管机构和行业的沿着。其目的是加速材料开发中颠覆性技术的发现和部署，并从这些角度做出重要贡献。 聚焦“活界面”是一个令人兴奋的第一个挑战，它的成功实施将打开许多其他合作和研究的途径。议程旨在确定生物材料发现新范式的差距和挑战，以自然启发但不紧张的方式利用合成生物学和进化方法。近年来生物材料的研究进展使人们对生物材料的基本过程和功能有了新的认识，并具有广泛的应用前景。美国国家科学基金会的利益在生活的规则作为十大思想的一部分，所以现在是时候投入大量的注意力来了解生物体如何发现和制造新材料，扩大什么构成功能性生物材料的范围，使用工程或人工“活”系统来创造新的和可持续的材料，以实现重要的功能，并提取结构与功能相关的基本经验教训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This proposal seeks support for the participation of leading experts from academia and funding agencies to explore the role of biomaterials for synthetic biology and for synthetic biology and evolution for the development of next-generation biomaterials. The theme of the workshop is "Living Interfaces" - understanding and controlling interfacial emergent bio-like order and function in far-from-equilibrium synthetic biomaterials systems. The aim is to use the results that emerge from the talks and discussion during the Square-Table workshop to write a report that captures the excitement and promise of this rapidly growing field of research for the various communities and agencies to use as a road-map. The proposal is to hold the workshop in Alexandria, VA in the early part of the week of 3 December 2018. This Square-Table will engage representatives from the biomaterials, synthetic biology, and molecular evolution communities, along with funding agencies, regulators and industry. The intent is to accelerate the discovery and deployment of disruptive technologies in materials development, with important contributions expected from each of these perspectives. The focus on "Living Interfaces" frames an exciting first challenge, the successful prosecution of which will open many other avenues of collaboration and research.The agenda is designed to identify gaps and challenges to a new paradigm for biomaterials discovery, taking advantage of synthetic biology and evolutionary approaches in ways inspired, but not on strained, by nature. The advances in biomaterials recently can bring new understanding of fundamental processes and functions covering a wide range of applications. The convergence of NSF interests in Rules of Life as part of the ten Big Ideas and so it is time to devote significant attention to understanding how organisms discover and make new materials, to expand the range of what constitutes a functional biomaterial, to use engineered or artificial "living" systems to create novel and sustainable materials for significant functions, and to extract fundamental lessons that relate structure to function. The aim is to define the outlines of an exciting new field of evolvable materialsThis 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.