Recent advances in the field of synthetic biology have made it possible to engineer both living cells and assembled materials to perform a variety of cellular mimetic tasks. Increasingly, genetic tools are being used to design “living” materials that are responsive, communicate, make decisions, and produce useful molecules. This session will focus on developments to create “living” materials by interfacing synthetic biology and biomaterials. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 1) developing and characterizing materials that display features of life or integrate living components, 2) designing materials that display information processing abilities including logic functions and decision-making capabilities, 3) developing materials that evolve and/or adapt to changing environments, and 4) using biofabrication technologies to construct biological assemblies

This session will target researchers working in material science and/or synthetic biology fields interested in learning about opportunities to expand the reach and capabilities of their work. Topics of interest include bioelectronics, programmed biosynthesis of materials, artificial cells and organelles, biosensing and therapeutic materials, bioprinting, as well as tool development to produce and/or characterize biologically engineered materials.

biological biological synthesis (assembly) biomimetic biomimetic (assembly) cellular (material type) self-assembly synthetic biology