Symposium SB03-Materials-Driven Strategies in Living Matter Engineering

The symposium will cover the most recent and emerging trends in synthetic biology, engineered living materials, biohybrids, and bioelectronic interfaces. In the last few years, synthetic biology design principles have been utilized to produce several intriguing smart materials for energy, health, and environmental applications. The idea and vision of Engineered Living Materials that integrate materials with life-like properties such as self-regeneration, self-regulation, self-healing, environmental responsivity, and evolvability have attracted the attention of scientists, funding agencies, media, and the public.
Additional focus of the symposium is centered on unraveling the intricate bioelectric and electrochemical phenomena manifesting at the abiotic-biotic interface, serving as the functional core of the hybrid materials. In this innovative approach, exogenous abiotic materials possessing tailored characteristics, such as light sensitivity and electrical responsivity, interface with biotic systems with the goal of achieving synergy with evolutionary competences like motility, bioelectricity, and responsiveness to environmental perturbations.
These efforts of biomanufacturing are the need of the hour to mitigate the effects of climate change, global warming, pollution, and potentially irreversible damage to the ecosystem. Building a bioeconomy of sustainable, functional materials requires innovative design strategies and the participation of researchers from a wide variety of fields to address the current global challenges.

biofilm biological biological synthesis (assembly) cellular (material type) circular economy hybrid polymer protein self-assembly