Recent advances in the synthesis of functional materials by engineered and recombinant living cells

Soft Matter ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (38) ◽  
pp. 6672-6677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Winnacker
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Recent Advances

Recent strategies for the synthesis of functional materials by living cells are highlighted, elucidating the potential of the interface of materials science and synthetic biology.

scholarly journals Self-adaptive Biosystems Through Tunable Genetic Parts and Circuits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Bartoli ◽  
Mario di Bernardo ◽  
Thomas E. Gorochowski
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Control Engineering ◽  
Physiological Conditions ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Self Adaptive

Biological systems often need to operate in complex environments where conditions can rapidly change. This is possible due to their inherent ability to sense changes and adapt by adjusting their behavior in response. Here, we detail recent advances in the creation of synthetic genetic parts and circuits whose behaviors can be dynamically tuned through a variety of intra- and extra-cellular signals. We show how this capability lays the foundation for implementing control engineering schemes in living cells and allows for the creation of biological systems that are able to self-adapt, ensuring their functionality is maintained in the face of varying environmental and physiological conditions. We end by discussing some of the broader implications of this technology for the safe deployment of synthetic biology.

scholarly journals Applications of Synthetic Biology in Materials Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-18
Author(s):  
Chao Shang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Material Design ◽  
Inorganic Materials ◽  
Advanced Materials ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Material Sciences

Materials are the basis for human being survival and social development. To keep abreast with the increasing needs from all aspects of human society, there are huge needs in the development of advanced materials as well as high-efficiency but low-cost manufacturing strategies that are both sustainable and tunable. Synthetic biology, a new engineering principle taking gene regulation and engineering design as the core, greatly promotes the development of life sciences. This discipline has also contributed to the development of material sciences and will continuously bring new ideas to future new material design. In this paper, we review recent advances in applications of synthetic biology in material sciences, with the focus on how synthetic biology could enable synthesis of new polymeric biomaterials and inorganic materials, phage display and directed evolution of proteins relevant to materials development, living functional materials, engineered bacteria-regulated artificial photosynthesis system as well as applications of gene circuits for material sciences.

scholarly journals Self-adaptive Biosystems Through Tunable Genetic Parts and Circuits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Bartoli ◽  
Mario di Bernardo ◽  
Thomas E. Gorochowski
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Control Engineering ◽  
Physiological Conditions ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Self Adaptive

Biological systems often need to operate in complex environments where conditions can rapidly change. This is possible due to their inherent ability to sense changes and adapt their behavior in response. Here, we detail recent advances in the creation of synthetic genetic parts and circuits whose behaviors can be dynamically tuned through a variety of intra- and extra-cellular signals. We show how this capability lays the foundation for implementing control engineering schemes in living cells and allows for the creation of biological systems that are able to self-adapt, ensuring their functionality is maintained in the face of varying environmental and physiological conditions. We end by discussing some of the broader implications of this technology for the safe deployment of synthetic biology.

scholarly journals Recent advances in the application of total scattering methods to functional materials

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (93) ◽  
pp. 16592-16604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Mancini ◽  
Lorenzo Malavasi
Keyword(s):  
Materials Science ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Feature Article ◽  
Total Scattering ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Pdf Analysis

In this Feature Article, we provide a description of some of the most recent results obtained in the field of materials science by means of total scattering methods and PDF analysis.

Development of Fieldable Lab-on-a-Chip Systems for Detection of a Broad Array of Targets From Toxicants to Biowarfare Agents

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Grimme ◽  
Travis King ◽  
Kyoo Dong Jo ◽  
Don Cropek ◽  
Aaron T. Timperman
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Lab On A Chip ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Cell Organelle ◽  
Trace Level ◽  
Hardware System ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Other Substances

In today's world, there is an ever growing need for lightweight, portable sensor systems to detect chemical toxicants and biological toxins. The challenges encountered with such detection systems are numerous, as there are a myriad of potential targets in various sample matrices that are often present at trace-level concentrations. At ERDC-CERL, the Lab-on-a-Chip (LoaC) group is working with a number of academic and small business collaborators to develop solutions to meet these challenges. This report will focus on recent advances in three distinct areas: (1) the development of a flexible platform to allow fieldable LoaC analyses of water samples, (2) cell-, organelle-, and synthetic biology-based toxicity sensors, and (3) nanofluidic/microfluidic interface (NMI) sample enrichment devices. To transition LoaC-based sensors from the laboratory bench to the field, a portable hardware system capable of operating a wide variety of microfluidic chip-based assays has been developed. As a demonstration of the versatility of this approach assays for the separation and quantitation of anionic contaminants (i.e., perchlorate), quantitation of heavy metals (Pb and Cd), and cell-based toxicity sensors have been developed and demonstrated. Sensors harboring living cells provide a rapid means of assessing water toxicity. Cell-based sensors exploit the sensitivity of a living cell to discrete changes in its environment to report the presence of toxicants. However, this sensitivity of cells to environmental changes also hinders their usability in nonlaboratory settings. Therefore, isolating intact organelles (i.e., mitochondria) offers a nonliving alternative that preserves the sensitivity of the living cells and allows the electrochemical reporting of the presence of a contaminant. Pursuing a synthetic biology approach has also allowed the development of nonliving reporting mechanisms that utilize engineered biological pathways for novel sensing and remediation applications. To help overcome the challenges associated with the detection of target species at trace-level concentrations, NMIs are being developed for the enrichment of charged species in solution. NMI concentrators can be classified as either electroosmotic flow or electrophoresis-dominant devices. Further advances in electrophoresis-dominant concentrators will aid in the analysis of samples that contain proteins and other substances prone to surface adsorption. These recent advances illustrate how LoaC systems provide a suitable platform for development of fieldable sensors to detect a broad range of chemical/biological pollutants and threats.

Recent Advances of Individual BODIPY and BODIPY-Based Functional Materials in Medical Diagnostics and Treatment

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy S. Marfin ◽  
Alexey V. Solomonov ◽  
Alexander S. Timin ◽  
Evgeniy V. Rumyantsev
Keyword(s):  
Functional Materials ◽  
Medical Diagnostics ◽  
Recent Advances

A glance on rare earth oxides: importance, reserves, demand, applications, critical uncertainties, global economy, and zeta potential characterization

2020 ◽  
Vol 05 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silas Santos ◽  
Orlando Rodrigues ◽  
Letícia Campos
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Sample Preparation ◽  
Rare Earths ◽  
Smart Materials ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Rare Earth Oxides ◽  
Interparticle Forces

Background: Innovation mission in materials science requires new approaches to form functional materials, wherein the concept of its formation begins in nano/micro scale. Rare earth oxides with general form (RE2O3; RE from La to Lu, including Sc and Y) exhibit particular proprieties, being used in a vast field of applications with high technological content since agriculture to astronomy. Despite of their applicability, there is a lack of studies on surface chemistry of rare earth oxides. Zeta potential determination provides key parameters to form smart materials by controlling interparticle forces, as well as their evolution during processing. This paper reports a study on zeta potential with emphasis for rare earth oxide nanoparticles. A brief overview on rare earths, as well as zeta potential, including sample preparation, measurement parameters, and the most common mistakes during this evaluation are reported. Methods: A brief overview on rare earths, including zeta potential, and interparticle forces are presented. A practical study on zeta potential of rare earth oxides - RE2O3 (RE as Y, Dy, Tm, Eu, and Ce) in aqueous media is reported. Moreover, sample preparation, measurement parameters, and common mistakes during this evaluation are discussed. Results: Potential zeta values depend on particle characteristics such as size, shape, density, and surface area. Besides, preparation of samples which involves electrolyte concentration and time for homogenization of suspensions are extremely valuable to get suitable results. Conclusion: Zeta potential evaluation provides key parameters to produce smart materials seeing that interparticle forces can be controlled. Even though zeta potential characterization is mature, investigations on rare earth oxides are very scarce. Therefore, this innovative paper is a valuable contribution on this field.

scholarly journals Metal Nano/Microparticles for Bioapplications

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 4543
Author(s):  
Xuan-Hung Pham ◽  
Seung-min Park ◽  
Bong-Hyun Jun
Keyword(s):  
Materials Science ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Micro Particles ◽  
Materials Science And Engineering

Nano/micro particles are considered to be the most valuable and important functional materials in the field of materials science and engineering [...]

scholarly journals Applications, challenges, and needs for employing synthetic biology beyond the lab

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierra M. Brooks ◽  
Hal S. Alper
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Autonomous Function ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Resource Limited ◽  
Major Application ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Probiotic Delivery

AbstractSynthetic biology holds great promise for addressing global needs. However, most current developments are not immediately translatable to ‘outside-the-lab’ scenarios that differ from controlled laboratory settings. Challenges include enabling long-term storage stability as well as operating in resource-limited and off-the-grid scenarios using autonomous function. Here we analyze recent advances in developing synthetic biological platforms for outside-the-lab scenarios with a focus on three major application spaces: bioproduction, biosensing, and closed-loop therapeutic and probiotic delivery. Across the Perspective, we highlight recent advances, areas for further development, possibilities for future applications, and the needs for innovation at the interface of other disciplines.

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