Synthesis and patterning of tunable multiscale materials with engineered cells

Abstract

A major challenge in materials science is to create self-assembling, functional, and environmentally responsive materials which can be patterned across multiple length scales. Natural biological systems, such as biofilms, shells, and skeletal tissues, implement dynamic regulatory programs to assemble complex multiscale materials comprised of living and non-living components1-9. Such systems can provide inspiration for the design of heterogeneous functional systems which integrate biotic and abiotic materials via hierarchical self-assembly. Here, we present a synthetic-biology platform for synthesizing and patterning self-assembled functional amyloid materials across multiple length scales with bacterial biofilms. We engineered Escherichia coli curli amyloid production under the tight control of synthetic regulatory circuits and interfaced amyloids with inorganic materials to create a biofilm-based electrical switch whose conductance can be selectively toggled by specific environmental signals. Furthermore, we externally tuned synthetic biofilms to build nanoscale amyloid biomaterials with different structure and composition through the controlled expression of their constituent subunits with artificial gene circuits. By using synthetic cell-cell communication, our engineered biofilms can also autonomously manufacture dynamic materials whose structure and composition change with time. In addition, we show that by combining subunit-level protein engineering, controlled genetic expression of self-assembling subunit proteins, and macroscale spatial gradients, synthetic biofilms can pattern protein biomaterials across multiple length scales. This work lays a foundation for synthesizing, patterning, and controlling composite materials with engineered biological systems. We envision that this approach can be expanded to other cellular and biomaterials contexts for the construction of self-organizing, environmentally responsive, and tunable multiscale composite materials with heterogeneous functionalities.