Engineered Living Materials For Sustainability

Abstract

Recent advances in synthetic biology and materials science have given rise to a new form of materials, namely engineered living materials (ELMs), which are composed of living matter or cell communities embedded in self-regenerating matrices of their own or artificial scaffolds. Like natural materials such as bone, wood, and skin, ELMs, which possess the functional capabilities of living organisms, can grow, self-organize, and self-repair when needed. They also spontaneously perform programmed biological functions upon sensing external cues. Currently, ELMs show promise for green energy production, bioremediation, disease treatment, and fabricating advanced smart materials. This review first introduces the dynamic features of natural living systems and their potential for developing novel materials. We then summarize the recent research progress on living materials and emerging design strategies from both synthetic biology and materials science perspectives. Finally, we discuss the positive impacts of living materials on promoting sustainability and key future research directions.

Rational design of functional amyloid fibrillar assemblies

“…In particular, functional amyloid curli fibrils, the major protein components of bacterial biofilms, have been harvested for construction of living biofilm materials, opening new application possibilities for engineered living materials. 123 Until now, several bacterial amyloid systems have been successfully engineered for such purposes, including E. coli curli CsgA, 124 Bacillus subtilis TasA 49 and Staphylococcus aureus Bap. 125 Indeed, these amyloid systems have been genetically modified with diverse functional domains ranging from short peptides (e.g., His tag (6 aa), FLAG tag (8 aa), mfp (48 aa)) to globular proteins (e.g., mCherry (237 aa), PETase (290 aa), organophosphate hydrolase (337 aa)) through the extracellular biofilm display technique.…”

Bioempowerment of Therapeutic Living Cells by Single‐Cell Surface Engineering

“…Overall, these modes of action benefit from the cytoprotectable encapsulation and cytocompatible bioempowerment of therapeutic cells in vitro. [8,16,17] In bioencapsulation, microencapsulation has been widely studied as a method for applications in engineered living cells [18,19] -(e.g., probiotic delivery as nutraceuticals and islet encapsulation)-but micrometric bulk hydrogels are too massive to meet the requirements for efficient and sustained therapeutic functions, [20] including actions exploiting circulatory systems, and their low stability and low permeability have limited facile and practical use in the field. [21] On the other hand, bioaugmentation, attempted by means of traditional biological and biochemical approaches, has faced long-lasting drawbacks, including a high level of procedural complexity, inability to undergo reversible modification, epigenetics and mutation, and risk of accidental release to the wild.…”

Light and carbon: Synthetic biology toward new cyanobacteria-based living biomaterials

“…A number of material scientists have made progress developing cyanobacteria-based biomaterials with applications in carbon capture, construction, energy, and food production. Many of these materials could be considered engineered living materials (ELMs) as they utilise living cyanobacteria to perform “smart” functions: assembly, repair, and response to external stimuli [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [148] ]. Researchers have capitalized on the natural biomineralization of cyanobacteria to produce regenerative building material made of a hydrogel-sand scaffold and Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7002 [ 15 ].…”