Nature Communications                          volume  15, Article number: 9179  (2024 )             Cite this articl

Mechanically Tunable, Compostable, Healable and Scalable Engineered Living Materials

submited by
Style Pass
2024-11-13 21:00:10

Nature Communications volume  15, Article number: 9179 (2024 ) Cite this article

Advanced design strategies are essential to realize the full potential of engineered living materials, including their biodegradability, manufacturability, sustainability, and ability to tailor functional properties. Toward these goals, we present mechanically engineered living material with compostability, healability, and scalability – a material that integrates these features in the form of a stretchable plastic that is simultaneously flushable, compostable, and exhibits the characteristics of paper. This plastic/paper-like material is produced in scalable quantities (0.5–1 g L−1), directly from cultured bacterial biomass (40%) containing engineered curli protein nanofibers. The elongation at break (1–160%) and Young’s modulus (6-450 MPa) is tuned to more than two orders of magnitude. By genetically encoded covalent crosslinking of curli nanofibers, we increase the Young’s modulus by two times. The designed engineered living materials biodegrade completely in 15–75 days, while its mechanical properties are comparable to petrochemical plastics and thus may find use as compostable materials for primary packaging.

The emerging field of Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) employs synthetic biology design principles to harness the programmability and the manufacturing capabilities of living cells to produce functional materials1,2,3,4. ELMs research not only provides avenues to integrate life-like properties into materials but also aims to realize de novo functionalities that are not found in natural or synthetic materials5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21. In recent years, several ELMs have been developed to demonstrate various functionalities such as adhesion, catalysis, mineralization, remediation, wound healing, and therapeutics etc22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31. ELMs that are mechanically stiff or soft have also been reported, but the rational modulation of mechanical properties to a wide range through genetic programming remains elusive5,6,9,10,11,25,32. In this regard, we present an ELM called MECHS, which stands for Mechanically Engineered Living Material with Compostability, Healability, and Scalability (Fig. 1).

Leave a Comment