Guest Seminar - Engineered Living Materials Programmed by Microbial Consortia
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Natural biological materials can seamlessly integrate the living attributes of biological systems with specific material properties. For instance, differentiated cells form the scales of butterfly wings, which acquire distinct physical characteristics through genetically regulated spatial arrangements. The emerging field of engineered living materials (ELMs) in synthetic biology has been established by leveraging living organisms to create materials endowed with biological dynamics such as signal processing, self-assembly, and self-repair capabilities. This talk will try to elucidate how genetic circuits can be employed to regulate behaviors of individual bacteria and microbial communities. By programming spatiotemporal responsiveness, structural organization, and interspecies interactions in living systems, we demonstrate the construction and hierarchical control of intelligent, multi-level functional materials.
Dai received her bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University. She obtained PhD degree in polymer physics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Prof Chi Wu, where she investigated the polymer chain dynamics and interactions between the polycations and polyanions. Then, she undertook postdoctoral training in synthetic biology at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University in Prof Lingchong You's lab. Since Sep 2018, she started her lab in iSynBio, focusing on the living fabrications by the engineered bacteria.