A. Duraj-Thatte
Virginia Tech,
United States
Keywords: engineered living materials, programmable biomaterials, sustainable materials
Summary:
Over the past few decades, living cells have been harnessed as factories to produce a range of organic molecules, polymers, drugs, and fuels. More recently, living cells have been engineered not only to make molecules but also to create and modulate materials, giving rise to the exciting field of Engineered Living Materials (ELMs). Built at the intersection of synthetic biology, materials engineering, and nanotechnology, ELMs offer an unprecedented platform for developing sustainable, functional materials. In this talk, I will present my lab’s research on developing Self-regenerative, Multifunctional, Adaptive, Responsive, and Therapeutic (SMART) Living Materials. We genetically engineer the bacterial protein CsgA to display functional peptides and proteins that self-assemble into nanofibers with specific functions. By rationally designing these nanofibers, we create ELMs with novel functions, such as selective binding to a wide range of abiotic and biotic targets. Expanding beyond E. coli, we have also explored nanofibers derived from non-model bacteria, enabling the development of new biomaterials with tunable physicochemical and mechanical properties. In parallel, we have developed a biomanufacturing strategy for producing functional hydrogels directly from microbial cultures—without the need for affinity purification or external synthetic polymers. These engineered hydrogels provide versatile platforms for biomedical and environmental applications.