Programmable Microbial Foundry for Functional Living Materials

Living cells have the unparalleled ability to produce materials under ambient conditions from abundantly available benign components. This remarkable manufacturing capability of living cell is harnessed in the emerging field of Engineered Living Materials for various functional applications. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts to program the microbial foundry to produce the AquaPlastic [1] and the Microbial Ink [2].<br/><br/>AquaPlastic is a novel bioplastic produced from engineered microbial biofilms and it biodegrades to ~90% in just 45 days. AquaPlastic is resistant to organic solvents, strong acid, and base, which can be further utilized to form the protective coatings on various 1D and 2D substrates. AquaPlastic can also be molded, healed, and welded by using water. This work on AquaPlastic paves the way for packaging and coating applications, and to build a sustainable world.<br/><br/>Microbial Ink is a new class of bioink produced entirely from the genetically engineered microbes by a bottom-up approach. The shear-thinning property of the Microbial Ink coupled with its high viscosity, high yield-stress and shape fidelity facilitated the extrusion-based 3D printing into multi-layered architectures. The Microbial Ink was further programmed by using rationally designed genetic circuits in microbial cells to produce; A) Therapeutic Living Material – On demand secretion of an anticancer drug, B) Sequestration Living Material – Selective removal of toxic moieties and C) Regulatable Living Material – To control the number of cells by inducing (on demand) cell death. This work enables unprecedented avenues to manufacture macroscopic Functional Living Architectures and showcases advanced capabilities of Engineered Living Materials.<br/><br/>[1] Nature Chemical Biology, 2021, 17, 732<br/>[2] Nature Communications, 2021, 12, 6600