Article
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Open Access
Featured
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Editorial |
Materials come alive
The dissemination of synthetic biology into materials science is creating an evolving class of functional, engineered living materials that can grow, sense and adapt similar to biological organisms.
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News & Views |
Living building blocks
A prototypical biocomposite block comprising a blend of bacteria, fungi and feedstock can be assembled into human-sized, living structures with self-healing and environmental sensing capabilities.
- Kwok Soon Wun
- , In Young Hwang
- & Matthew Wook Chang
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Perspective |
The living interface between synthetic biology and biomaterial design
This Perspective reviews the complementary developments in synthetic biology and biomaterials and discusses how convergence of these two fields creates a promising design strategy for the fabrication of tailored living materials for medicine and biotechnology.
- Allen P. Liu
- , Eric A. Appel
- & Ovijit Chaudhuri
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Article |
Engineering living and regenerative fungal–bacterial biocomposite structures
Lignocellulosic waste is transformed into fungal–bacterial biocomposites that can be processed into recyclable, human-scale structural objects with biosynthetic and sensing–reporting functionalities.
- Ross M. McBee
- , Matt Lucht
- & Harris H. Wang
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Article |
Programmable icosahedral shell system for virus trapping
Programmable triangular DNA blocks self-assemble into distinct icosahedral shells with specific geometry and apertures that can encapsulate viruses and decrease viral infection.
- Christian Sigl
- , Elena M. Willner
- & Hendrik Dietz
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Article |
Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures
A symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast is used to fabricate bacterial cellulose-based living materials that respond to external cues and adapt their structural and functional properties, with implications for sensing and catalytic applications.
- Charlie Gilbert
- , Tzu-Chieh Tang
- & Tom Ellis
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Article |
Intracellular production of hydrogels and synthetic RNA granules by multivalent molecular interactions
An approach to form protein-based hydrogels in living cells that resemble physiological hydrogel-like size-dependent molecular sieves is presented. Synthetic RNA granules mimics are obtained by functionalizing these entities with RNA-binding motifs.
- Hideki Nakamura
- , Albert A. Lee
- & Takanari Inoue
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Article |
Sequential bottom-up assembly of mechanically stabilized synthetic cells by microfluidics
A microfluidics method to generate giant, copolymer-stabilized liposomes is presented. These vesicles are functionalized with distinct proteins to recapitulate cellular processes.
- Marian Weiss
- , Johannes Patrick Frohnmayer
- & Joachim P. Spatz
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Article |
Phagocytosis-inspired behaviour in synthetic protocell communities of compartmentalized colloidal objects
Droplets with magnetite membranes are designed to engulf in a phagocytosis-inspired manner smaller colloidal objects, demonstrating a route for sequential cargo delivery and release followed by internalized reactions.
- Laura Rodríguez-Arco
- , Mei Li
- & Stephen Mann
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Progress |
Materials for next-generation molecularly selective synthetic membranes
Liquid and gas purification using membrane materials permits a wide range of critical industrial processes, and here it is discussed how they might achieve molecular selectivity.
- William J. Koros
- & Chen Zhang
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Review Article |
Pursuing prosthetic electronic skin
This Review discusses the materials and electronic requirements for flexible sensors and electronic systems to mimic the mechanical and sensing properties of natural skin, with the goal of providing artificial prostheses with sensing capabilities.
- Alex Chortos
- , Jia Liu
- & Zhenan Bao
3D printed protein-based robotic structures actuated by molecular motor assemblies