Towards engineering living functional materials
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, February, 2021
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130802 |
| _version_ | 1826218115585802240 |
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| author | Tang, Tzu-Chieh,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| author2 | Timothy K. Lu and Neri Oxman. |
| author_facet | Timothy K. Lu and Neri Oxman. Tang, Tzu-Chieh,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| author_sort | Tang, Tzu-Chieh,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, February, 2021 |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:14:05Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/130802 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:14:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1308022021-05-26T03:00:41Z Towards engineering living functional materials Tang, Tzu-Chieh,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Timothy K. Lu and Neri Oxman. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering Biological Engineering. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, February, 2021 Cataloged from the official PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 206-221). Synthetic biology has become one of the most rapidly evolving research fields, with impacts on all aspects of our daily life. Through applying engineering principles to programming biological systems, synthetic biology provides advanced techniques to program organisms to perform desired tasks, similar to machines created by humans. Today, it has enabled the development of alternative meat substitutes, biosensors for water contamination, and living fertilizers that promote plant growth. The grand challenge to bridge the concept-to-product gap is twofold: scalability and safe deployment. First, most model microorganisms cannot produce a macroscale matrix to sustain themselves as standalone devices. The field of engineered living materials (ELMs) aims to recapitulate the remarkable properties of natural biology to create novel, growable, multifunctional materials using genetically engineered organisms. Nevertheless, most relevant pioneering work was created using nano- to microscale biofilm, which has rather small yields and usually requires costly modification. Second, releasing genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs) into the field for food, water, or agricultural applications is often considered risky due to the uncertainty of wild-type organisms acquiring undesirable traits, such as antibiotic resistance, from the GMMs. A significant effort in addressing these unmet needs is called for. This Thesis starts with an introduction of genetic circuits and an in-depth review of the current trends in materials synthetic biology, which includes two major categories of ELMs: self-organizing functional materials and hybrid living materials. The following chapters describe the technologies developed to achieve high scalability and safe deployment of ELMs in these two categories and living devices suitable for real-world applications. Finally, a detailed outlook summarizes the challenges and prospects for materials synthetic biology and engineering living functional materials. by Tzu-Chieh Tang. Ph. D. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering 2021-05-25T18:20:19Z 2021-05-25T18:20:19Z 2021 2021 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130802 1252627180 eng MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 221 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Biological Engineering. Tang, Tzu-Chieh,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title | Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title_full | Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title_fullStr | Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title_short | Towards engineering living functional materials |
| title_sort | towards engineering living functional materials |
| topic | Biological Engineering. |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130802 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tangtzuchiehphdmassachusettsinstituteoftechnology towardsengineeringlivingfunctionalmaterials |