November 27 - December 4, 2020
November 27 - December 4, 2020 (Virtual)
2020 MRS Spring/Fall Meeting

Symposium S.SM07-Bioinspired Synthesis and Manufacturing of Materials

This symposium will focus on current and emerging strategies for bioinspired synthesis and manufacturing of materials. Over the past 3 decades, biological materials have been an area of intense study owing to their precise control over molecular chemistry and hierarchical assembly that gives rise to unique emergent properties. Tremendous progress has been made to understand the structure-property relationships within such materials, however synthesis and production at scale remains a critical challenge. Recently, advances in synthetic biology have offered tremendous potential to engineer biological systems for the production of specialty chemicals and materials as evidenced by more than 300 commercialized bioproducts. The ability to harness engineered biological systems to produce materials has the potential to offer precise and conventionally inaccessible chemistries, hierarchical assembly of materials at scale, materials with dynamic and responsive properties, and production of materials with diminished environmental footprint.

The intent of this symposium is to bring together scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to highlight new scientific advances in engineered biological systems for the synthesis and assembly of materials (including specialty chemicals, biopolymers, nanomaterials and composites). Special consideration will be given to development of new tools for rapid and high-throughput design, build, and test of engineered biological systems for the production or assembly of materials.

Topics will include:

  • Engineered biosynthesis of specialty chemicals, polymers, and nanomaterials
  • Engineered biosynthesis of composites and hybrid materials
  • Biologically programmed assembly of materials
  • Engineered biofilms and living materials
  • High-throughput tools for separation and processing of materials
  • High-throughput tools for prototyping, characterization and screening of materials

Invited Speakers:

  • Carole Perry (Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom)
  • Rein Ulijn (Hunter College City University of New York, USA)
  • Michael Jewett (Northwestern University, USA)
  • David Kaplan (Tufts University, USA)
  • Sarah Glaven (Naval Research Laboratory, USA)
  • Neel Joshi (Harvard University, USA)
  • Michael Dosier (bioMASON, USA)
  • Dominic Glover (University of New South Wales, Australia)
  • Jay Keasling (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
  • Nancy Kelley-Loughnane (Air Force Research Laboratory, USA)
  • Arash Komeili (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
  • Jin Montclare (New York University, USA)
  • Damen Schaak (Ecovative Design LLC, USA)
  • Thomas Scheibel (Universität Bayreuth, Germany)
  • Danielle Tullman-Ercek (Northwestern University, USA)
  • Claudia Vickers (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia)

Symposium Organizers

Maneesh Gupta
Air Force Research Laboratory
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate
USA

Caroline Ajo-Franklin
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
USA

Nicholas Bedford
University of New South Wales
Australia

Blake Johnson
Virginia Tech
USA

Topics

biofilm biological synthesis (assembly) biomaterial biomimetic (assembly)