The living interface between synthetic biology and biomaterial design

Allen P Liu; Eric A Appel; Paul D Ashby; Brendon M Baker; Elisa Franco; Luo Gu; Karmella Haynes; Neel S Joshi; April M Kloxin; Paul H J Kouwer; Jeetain Mittal; Leonardo Morsut; Vincent Noireaux; Sapun Parekh; Rebecca Schulman; Sindy K Y Tang; Megan T Valentine; Sebastián L Vega; Wilfried Weber; Nicholas Stephanopoulos; Ovijit Chaudhuri

doi:10.1038/s41563-022-01231-3

The living interface between synthetic biology and biomaterial design

Nat Mater. 2022 Apr;21(4):390-397. doi: 10.1038/s41563-022-01231-3. Epub 2022 Mar 31.

Authors

Allen P Liu¹, Eric A Appel², Paul D Ashby³, Brendon M Baker⁴, Elisa Franco⁵, Luo Gu⁶, Karmella Haynes⁷, Neel S Joshi⁸, April M Kloxin⁹, Paul H J Kouwer¹⁰, Jeetain Mittal¹¹, Leonardo Morsut¹², Vincent Noireaux¹³, Sapun Parekh¹⁴, Rebecca Schulman¹⁵, Sindy K Y Tang¹⁶, Megan T Valentine¹⁷, Sebastián L Vega¹⁸, Wilfried Weber¹⁹, Nicholas Stephanopoulos²⁰, Ovijit Chaudhuri²¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. allenliu@umich.edu.
² Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
³ Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
⁵ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁸ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
¹⁰ Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
¹¹ Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
¹² Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA.
¹⁹ Faculty of Biology and Signalling Research Centres BIOSS and CIBSS, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
²⁰ School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. nstepha1@asu.edu.
²¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. chaudhuri@stanford.edu.

Abstract

Recent far-reaching advances in synthetic biology have yielded exciting tools for the creation of new materials. Conversely, advances in the fundamental understanding of soft-condensed matter, polymers and biomaterials offer new avenues to extend the reach of synthetic biology. The broad and exciting range of possible applications have substantial implications to address grand challenges in health, biotechnology and sustainability. Despite the potentially transformative impact that lies at the interface of synthetic biology and biomaterials, the two fields have, so far, progressed mostly separately. This Perspective provides a review of recent key advances in these two fields, and a roadmap for collaboration at the interface between the two communities. We highlight the near-term applications of this interface to the development of hierarchically structured biomaterials, from bioinspired building blocks to 'living' materials that sense and respond based on the reciprocal interactions between materials and embedded cells.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biocompatible Materials*
Polymers
Synthetic Biology*

Substances

Biocompatible Materials
Polymers

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding