Stimuli-responsive engineered living materials

Stimuli-responsive materials are able to undergo controllable changes in materials properties in response to external cues. Increasing efforts have been directed towards building materials that mimic the responsive nature of biological systems. Nevertheless, limitations remain surrounding the way th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2021-01, Vol.17 (4), p.785-89
Main Authors: Rivera-Tarazona, Laura K, Campbell, Zachary T, Ware, Taylor H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical materials
Building materials
Construction materials
Drug delivery
Environmental effects
Genetic engineering
Material properties
Sensors
Stimuli
Synthetic products
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Stimuli-responsive materials are able to undergo controllable changes in materials properties in response to external cues. Increasing efforts have been directed towards building materials that mimic the responsive nature of biological systems. Nevertheless, limitations remain surrounding the way these synthetic materials interact and respond to their environment. In particular, it is difficult to synthesize synthetic materials that respond with specificity to poorly differentiated (bio)chemical and weak physical stimuli. The emerging area of engineered living materials (ELMs) includes composites that combine living cells and synthetic materials. ELMs have yielded promising advances in the creation of stimuli-responsive materials that respond with diverse outputs in response to a broad array of biochemical and physical stimuli. This review describes advances made in the genetic engineering of the living component and the processing-property relationships of stimuli-responsive ELMs. Finally, the implementation of stimuli-responsive ELMs as environmental sensors, biomedical sensors, drug delivery vehicles, and soft robots is discussed. Engineered living materials integrate genetic engineering and synthetic materials to program stimuli responses that enable the fabrication of devices for diverse applications.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/d0sm01905d