Natural living materials grow following information stored in their genetic code. They also undergo continuous and autonomous re-modelling in response to external factors and adapt their performance to new solicitations. Such properties are desirable in many technical materials, but they are extremely difficult to realize with non-living matter. In the SPP 2451 Engineered Living Materials with Adaptive Functions, new materials with programmable and adaptive capabilities will be realized by combining living organisms with materials in a synergistic way. Materials with advanced property combinations like responsiveness to multiple factors, resilience or evolvability are envisioned.
To unfold the potential of the synergistic engineering of non-living and living components, researchers in materials science and in biology/bioengineering need to work together. These communities collaborate in the SPP2451 to address some of the following research questions:
- How can materials be designed to allow sustained cellular survival and function?
- What are the potential risks and mitigation strategies for responsible application of ELMs in the future?
- How can synthetic biology tools be interfaced with materials?
- How can processing technologies be made compatible with living cells?
- Which parameters and methods are required to characterize the dynamic behavior of ELMs?
- What are the requirements for the standardized scale-up of ELM production?