URoL:EN: Convergence of biology and architecture: how emergent system dynamics generate adaptable, robust, and resilient forms

如何设计和建造建筑物，通过对环境的反应和适应，使其行为更像生物体？该项目旨在将形状设计提升到一个新的水平，使建筑在不断变化的环境条件下发挥作用。同样，复杂生物系统在不断变化的环境条件下茁壮成长的能力取决于它们适应、改变自身形态和功能的能力。在动物和植物的发育过程中，细胞必须生长，承担特殊的功能，形成复杂的器官形状。此外，植物组织可以被诱导形成无组织的细胞团并再生成新的生物体，作为生物多样性保护的一种形式。在脑癌中，肿瘤产生新的组织形式，然后与周围的组织竞争生长。该项目测试了一个核心假设，即所有这些不同的生物系统都使用一个平行的紧急网络，将系统与环境（生命的规则）连接起来，以实现它们的形状，并且这个相同的紧急网络可以应用于建筑设计，以产生适应性强、健壮和有弹性的结构。生命规律可以通过使用一系列不同的系统来识别和测试，这就是为什么这个项目将研究小鸡心脏、植物花朵、脑癌、植物细胞再生和建筑立面。社会正在经历第四次工业革命，数字、物理和生物的交集正在彻底改变世界。一些最沉重的社会挑战——气候危机背景下的建筑、先天性心脏病、癌症和粮食安全——都具有形状形成缺陷的特征。通过理解产生鲁棒性、适应性和弹性的基本新兴网络，将获得对这些棘手问题的见解。下一代融合型科学家、工程师和建筑师将得到培训。公众将在画廊展览中体验由该项目产生的创新建筑原型。该项目将测试一个假设，即稳健形式的出现，即形态发生，发生在连接系统与环境的多细胞网络相互作用的迭代循环中。此外，这种基于生物的涌现网络将被应用于改造建筑和制造业，以创造自组装、自适应和有弹性的结构。这与流行的教条形成鲜明对比，即生物和建筑形态发生是通过“前向遗传”程序控制的，没有来自生物物理环境的迭代反馈。循环涌现网络的每一步都将通过在四个不同生物系统的进化生物物理环境中执行相同的三种实验技术进行测试：小鸡心脏，拟南芥花，小鼠脑癌和再生拟南芥体细胞胚胎。（目标1）光学相干弹性成像将用于测量生物系统在三维和随时间变化的机械环境中的局部机械特性。研究结果将测试细胞感知内外机械应力循环的第一步。（目标2）Visium HD空间RNA-seq技术将用于确定细胞如何改变其基因表达谱以响应外部机械应力。研究结果将测试循环的第二步，即细胞通过改变基因表达改变其材料特性、状态和动态来适应压力。（目标3）高光谱多光子显微镜将用于在不同环境下形状生成过程中同时成像约七种荧光标记物。结果将测试细胞的生长、分裂和运动如何使形式适应最佳力学。这个循环被假设为迭代的渐进形式导致新的局部机械应力和在不断变化的环境条件下的新的相互作用。（目标4）在目标1-3中开发的这些形态发生设计规则将被建模并用于创建具有紧急特性的健壮的生物启发的承重farade系统。该结构将调节波动的内部和外部气候条件，控制结构刚度、光线、温度、湿度和气流，以响应不断变化的环境。如何稳健，弹性和适应性形式出现在这个新兴的多细胞网络的多个周期将被阐明。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

How might buildings be designed and constructed to behave more like organisms by responding and adapting to their environments? This project aims to take shape design to the next level such that architecture functions in changing environmental conditions. Likewise, the ability of complex biological systems to thrive in changing environmental conditions depends on their ability to adapt, altering their form and function. During development in both animals and plants, cells must grow, take on specialized functions, and form the complex shapes of organs. In addition, plant tissues can be induced to form unorganized cell masses and regenerate a new organism as a form of biodiversity conservation. In brain cancer, tumors generate new tissue forms, which then compete with the surrounding tissue for their growth. This project tests the core hypothesis that all of these diverse biological systems use a parallel emergent network connecting the system with the environment—a rule of life—to achieve their shapes, and that this same emergent network can be applied to architectural design to generate adaptable, robust, and resilient structures. Rules of life can be identified and tested by using a diverse set of systems, which is why this project will examine chick hearts, plant flowers, brain cancer, plant cell regeneration, and architectural building façades. Society is experiencing the 4th Industrial Revolution where intersections between the digital, physical, and biological are radically altering the world. Some of the most burdensome societal challenges—architecture in the context of climate crisis, congenital heart defects, cancer, and food security—share the trait of defective shape formation. By understanding the fundamental emergent networks generating robustness, adaptability, and resilience, insights will be gained into these intractable problems. The next generation of convergent scientists, engineers, and architects will be trained. The public will experience the innovative architectural prototypes generated through this project in gallery exhibitions. This project will test the hypothesis that the emergence of robust forms, i.e. morphogenesis, occurs through an iterative cycle of multicellular network interactions connecting the system with the environment. Further, this same biologically based emergence network will be applied to transform architecture and manufacturing to create self-assembled, adaptive, and resilient structures. This markedly contrasts with the prevailing dogma that biological and architectural morphogenesis is controlled via a “forward genetic” program without iterative feedback from its biophysical environment. Each step of the cyclical emergence network will be tested by performing the same three experimental techniques in evolving biophysical environments across four diverse biological systems: chick hearts, Arabidopsis flowers, brain cancer in mice, and regenerating Arabidopsis somatic embryos. (Aim 1) Optical coherence elastography will be used to measure the local mechanical properties of the biological systems in 3D and over time in varying mechanical environments. The results will test the first step in the cycle in which cells perceive both internal and external mechanical stresses. (Aim 2) Visium HD spatial RNA-seq technology will be used to determine how cells alter their gene expression profiles in response to external mechanical stresses. The results will test step 2 in the cycle in which cells adapt to stress by altering their material properties, state, and dynamics via changing gene expression. (Aim 3) Hyperspectral multiphoton microscopy will be used to simultaneously image about seven fluorescent markers during shape generation in varying environments. The results will test how the growth, division, and movement of cells adapt the form toward optimal mechanics. This cycle is hypothesized to iterate as progressive form leads to new local mechanical stresses and new interactions within evolving environmental conditions. (Aim 4) These morphogenetic design rules developed in Aims 1-3 will be modeled and employed to create a robust bioinspired load-bearing façade system with emergent properties. This structure will mediate between fluctuating interior and exterior climatic conditions, control structural rigidity, light, temperature, humidity, and airflow in response to an ever-evolving environment. How robust, resilient, and adaptable forms emerge over multiple cycles of this emergent multicellular network will be elucidated.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.