Award Abstract # 2135586
BRITE Fellow: Rigid Engineered Living Materials

NSF Org: CMMI
Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
Recipient: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: March 6, 2022
Latest Amendment Date: March 6, 2022
Award Number: 2135586
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Siddiq Qidwai
sqidwai@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2211
CMMI
 Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: March 15, 2022
End Date: September 30, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $962,837.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $962,837.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2022 = $3,545.00
History of Investigator:
  • Christopher Hernandez (Principal Investigator)
    christopher.hernandez@ucsf.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Cornell University
341 PINE TREE RD
ITHACA
NY  US  14850-2820
(607)255-5014
Sponsor Congressional District: 19
Primary Place of Performance: Cornell University
NY  US  14850-2820
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
19
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G56PUALJ3KT5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): BRITE-BoostRschIdeasTransEquit
Primary Program Source: 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 024E, 027E, 144E, 7573, 8037, 9102, 9161
Program Element Code(s): 192Y00
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

This Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) Fellow grant will establish basic scientific and design approaches needed to combine materials used in engineering applications (plastics, metals, ceramics, etc.) with living organisms (bacteria). The addition of living cells to engineering materials has the potential to instill biological traits (growth, healing, etc.) to the materials used to make vehicles, buildings, and commercial products. In particular, the ability of living cells to continuously repair a material has the potential to reduce financial and environmental costs generated when worn parts/devices are repaired or replaced. The creation of new longer-lasting materials has the potential to reduce energy needs associated with material manufacturing which are responsible for 25 percent of global carbon emissions. In addition to advancing engineering science, the work includes efforts to maintain US leadership in technology by increasing domestic engineering talent pools through broadening participation by members of underrepresented groups. Specifically, the efforts involve building a network of engineering faculty to coordinate volunteer service, mentorship and advocacy toward the long-term goal of achieving demographic parity in engineering by the US Hispanic population.

Most convergent research spanning engineering and biology focuses on the use of engineering principals to address challenges in biology. In contrast, this BRITE Fellow project focuses on the transformative concept of using biological systems to address challenges in engineering. This project seeks to advance the field of Engineered Living Materials by focusing on the design and function of rigid, load carrying materials functionalized by the presence of living organisms. The project addresses the following research questions: (i) What design principles are required to maintain viability of resident cells within rigid engineered materials? (ii) What are the best ways to populate or repopulate a rigid material using living cells? (iii) What existing manufacturing techniques can be used to create materials easily populated by bacteria? and (iv) How could mechanically sensitive bacteria be used within the materials to sense mechanical damage? The research uses a naturally occurring rigid living material, bone, as a biological inspiration. Nanofluidic devices are used to identify functional design principles for channel morphology, nutrient delivery, and the utility of externally applied fluid pressure and/or mechanical loading. The findings will be applicable across several classes of rigid materials (polymers, metals, ceramics) and several types of cells researched for use in engineered living materials (bacteria, fungi, microalgae, etc.).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

Note:  When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

Harper, Christine E. and Zhang, Wenyao and Lee, Junsung and Shin, Jung-Ho and Keller, Megan R. and van Wijngaarden, Ellen and Chou, Emily and Wang, Zhaohong and Dörr, Tobias and Chen, Peng and Hernandez, Christopher J. "Mechanical stimuli activate gene expression via a cell envelope stress sensing pathway" Scientific Reports , v.13 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40897-w Citation Details
Heveran, Chelsea M and Gerlach, Robin and Hernandez, Christopher J and Intemann, Kristen and Meyer, Anne S and Ajo-Franklin, Caroline and Charrier, Marimikel and Srubar, Wilfred V and Joshi, Neel and Nelson, Alshakim and Fields, Matthew W "Unlocking the societal potential of engineered living materials" Matter , v.7 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2024.07.011 Citation Details
Heveran, Chelsea M. and Hernandez, Christopher J. "Make engineered living materials carry their weight" Matter , v.6 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2023.07.023 Citation Details
van Wijngaarden, Ellen W. and Bratcher, Samantha and Lewis, Karl J. and Hernandez, Christopher J. "Solute Transport in Engineered Living Materials Using BoneInspired Microscale Channel Networks" Advanced Engineering Materials , v.25 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202301032 Citation Details

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page