Augmenting the function of materials with living matter is expected to yield major innovations. Projects in the SPP will target the development of ELMs with adaptive functions, as a long-term vision. The projects should go beyond proof-of-concept studies (i.e. straightforward combinations of engineered organisms and matrices).
Within the first funding period, the focus of the SPP 2451 will be on foundational approaches and technologies for designing, programming, synthesizing and analyzing living materials with adaptive function and responsible use. Each application is expected to address at least two of the following topics:
- Development of design rules for materials to sustain and regulate cell survival, confinement and function, and demonstrators that validate them.
- Development and validation of synthetic biological technologies to render living materials adaptive to desired stimuli.
- Development of material precursors and morphologies coupled to processing technologies (e.g., 3D printing) that can realize and upscale multimaterial ELMs
- Development and validation of methods to characterize the dynamic nature of ELMs.
- Research on the responsible and safe use of ELMs
ELMs in the SPP should have a clear added value vs. non-living material alternatives. The functionality and potential application scenarios for ELMs in the SPP are open to creativity, as well as the nature of the engineered living organism or matrix. With regard to the choice of the material matrix or the organisms, there are no limitations. The SPP welcomes all type of adaptive property or property combinations in the envisioned ELMs.
In order to keep the SPP focused, the following research topics are excluded: tissue engineering in a classical regenerative medicine context, biohybrid materials with no function-relevant sensing/adaptation capability, biotechnological growth of materials without considering an adaptive function, and single-cell-devices without functional integration into a material.
All proposals are expected to include at least two PIs with complementing expertise. The collaboration partners should target a common goal. We expect most contributions to come from interactions between the disciplines of materials science, synthetic biology, biophysics, bioinformatics and biotechnology, microbiology, medical and environmental sciences, as well as contributions from law and ethics. Since the field is at the early stage of development, in the first funding period we expect collaborative proposals from applicants with relevant own expertise for the project, but not necessarily with previous collaboration records.
Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 23rd October 2023.
The proposals submitted within the SPP 2451 will be reviewed in a review colloquium on January 17, 2024 in Saarbrücken.