Grow-Your-Own Composites: Programming Diverse Material Properties for Defence into Engineered Bacterial Cellulose

自行种植复合材料：将用于防御的多种材料特性编程到工程细菌纤维素中

• 批准号: EP/N026489/1
• 负责人: Thomas Ellis
• 金额: $ 69.14万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FN026489%2F1
• 关键词: Grow; Your; Own; Composites; Programming

Bacterial cellulose is a strong, ultrapure form of the biomaterial nanocellulose, which is naturally made in large amounts by several species of Acetobacter bacteria including K. rhaeticus. Bacterial cellulose is cheap to produce, has desirable purity, high crystallinity and tensile properties and does not contain other impurities like those found in plant cellulose. It is mouldable, biocompatible and capable of storing water over 90% of its total weight, and has found numerous commercial applications in medical wound-dressings, high-end acoustics, and many other diverse products.In this proposal, we plan to build on our recent success guiding the Imperial College 2014 iGEM team in developing genetic manipulation methods and a synthetic biology toolkit for K. rhaeticus, the first toolkit of note for bacteria that produce cellulose in high yields. Our vision is to use synthetic biology methods to modify the production of bacterial cellulose from K. rhaeticus so that the bacterial cultures now produce programmable cellulose composites that have diverse and highly-desired material properties, ideally for defence applications. By using our synthetic biology tools and expanding this toolkit with further features such as genome editing and light-based control, we will be able to alter and control bacteria at the DNA level so that they now can be made to secrete modified bacterial cellulose with different bulk properties such as altered hydrophobicity. We will also use our toolkit to get our growing bacteria to produce interwoven mixtures of bacterial cellulose and other biomaterials such as bioplastics, functional proteins (e.g. enzymes) and protein polymers (e.g. curli fibres and silks). The result will be a variety of biosynthesised nanocellulose composites, likely to have valuable material properties that improve the strength and ductility of materials fabricated with this substrate, without increasing the weight and cost significantly further. Combining our team's considerable expertise in synthetic biology, composite engineering and blast research, we will together develop methods to safely convert these bacterial cellulose composites into lightweight layered composite materials and into advanced aerogels that match the material properties desired for defence applications in protection and shock absorption and more. We will test the mechanical properties of our new biosynthesised composites and use this to feedback to improved second-generation designs. Our project brings together Synthetic Biology and Advanced Materials, two of the UK's Eight Great Technologies, and will lay the foundations for using DNA-based engineering of cells to produce advanced biomaterial composites with many diverse and valuable future applications.

细菌纤维素是生物材料纳米纤维素的一种强效超纯形式，由包括雷氏克鲁维酵母在内的多种醋杆菌属细菌大量自然产生。细菌纤维素生产成本低廉，具有理想的纯度、高结晶度和拉伸性能，并且不含植物纤维素等其他杂质。它具有可塑性、生物相容性，能够储存占其总重量 90% 以上的水，并在医用伤口敷料、高端声学和许多其他多样化产品中找到了众多商业应用。在这项提案中，我们计划以我们最近成功指导帝国理工学院 2014 iGEM 团队开发 K. rhaeticus 的基因操作方法和合成生物学工具包，这是第一个针对高产纤维素细菌的工具包。我们的愿景是使用合成生物学方法来改进 K. rhaeticus 细菌纤维素的生产，以便细菌培养物现在生产出具有多样化和高度期望的材料特性的可编程纤维素复合材料，非常适合国防应用。通过使用我们的合成生物学工具并通过基因组编辑和基于光的控制等进一步功能扩展该工具包，我们将能够在 DNA 水平上改变和控制细菌，以便它们现在可以分泌具有不同特性的修饰细菌纤维素。整体特性，例如改变的疏水性。我们还将使用我们的工具包让我们生长的细菌产生细菌纤维素和其他生物材料的交织混合物，例如生物塑料、功能性蛋白质（例如酶）和蛋白质聚合物（例如卷曲纤维和丝绸）。其结果将是各种生物合成的纳米纤维素复合材料，可能具有有价值的材料特性，可以提高用这种基材制造的材料的强度和延展性，而不会进一步显着增加重量和成本。结合我们团队在合成生物学、复合材料工程和爆炸研究方面的丰富专业知识，我们将共同开发方法，将这些细菌纤维素复合材料安全地转化为轻质层状复合材料和先进的气凝胶，以符合国防应用所需的防护和减震材料特性等等。我们将测试新型生物合成复合材料的机械性能，并将其用于反馈改进的第二代设计。我们的项目汇集了英国八项伟大技术中的两项合成生物学和先进材料，并将为使用基于 DNA 的细胞工程生产具有多种多样化且有价值的未来应用的先进生物材料复合材料奠定基础。

项目成果

Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures.

由工程微生物共培养物培育而成的具有可编程功能的活性材料。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1038/s41563-020-00857-5
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Nature materials
• 影响因子: 41.2
• 作者: Gilbert C

Increasing bacterial cellulose compression resilience with glycerol or PEG400 for robuster engineered living materials.

使用甘油或 PEG400 提高细菌纤维素的压缩弹性，以获得更坚固的工程活性材料。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1016/j.carpta.2022.100245
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Carbohydrate Polymer Technologies and Applications
• 影响因子: 5.5
• 作者: Caro

Increasing Bacterial Cellulose Compression Resilience with Glycerol or Peg400 for Robuster Engineered Living Materials

使用甘油或 Peg400 提高细菌纤维素压缩弹性，用于坚固的工程活性材料

• DOI: http://dx.10.2139/ssrn.4079357
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: SSRN Electronic Journal
• 作者: Caro

Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures

由工程微生物共培养物培育而成的具有可编程功能的活性材料

• DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-00857-5
• 发表时间: 2019-12-20
• 期刊: bioRxiv
• 作者: Charlie Gilbert;Tzu;Wolfgang Ott;Br;on A Dorr;on;William M Shaw;George L. Sun;T. Lu
• 通讯作者: T. Lu

Biological Engineered Living Materials: Growing Functional Materials with Genetically Programmable Properties.

生物工程活性材料：种植具有基因可编程特性的功能材料。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1021/acssynbio.8b00423
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: ACS synthetic biology
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Gilbert C