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   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    The art and science of living-like architecture    
      
     Date:   
         June 21, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science   
     Summary:   
         Collaborators have created 'living-like' bioactive interior   
         architecture designed to one day protect us from hidden airborne   
         threats. This publication establishes that the lab's biomaterial   
         manufacturing process is compatible with the leading-edge cell-free   
         engineering that gives the bioactive sites their life-like   
         properties.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   "This technology is not alive," says Laia Mogas-Soldevila. "It is   
   living-like."  The distinction is an important one for the assistant   
   professor at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, for reasons both   
   scientific and artistic. With a doctorate in biomedical engineering,   
   several degrees in architecture, and a devotion to sustainable design,   
   Mogas-Soldevila brings biology to everyday life, creating materials for   
   a future built halfway between nature and artifice.   
      
   The architectural technology she describes is unassuming at first look:   
   A freeze-dried pellet, small enough to get lost in your pocket. But this   
   tiny lump of matter, the result of more than a year's collaboration   
   between designers, engineers and biologists, is a biomaterial that   
   contains a "living- like" system.   
      
   When touched by water, the pellet activates and expresses a glowing   
   protein, its fluorescence demonstrating that life and art can   
   harmonize into a third and very different thing, as ready to please   
   as to protect. Woven into lattices made of flexible natural materials   
   promoting air and moisture flow, the pellets form striking interior   
   design elements that could one day keep us healthy.   
      
   "We envision them as sensors," explains Mogas-Soldevila. "They may   
   detect pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, or alert people to toxins   
   inside their home. The pellets are designed to interact with air. With   
   development, they could monitor or even clean it."  For now, they   
   glow, a triumphant first stop on the team's roadmap to the future. The   
   fluorescence establishes that the lab's biomaterial manufacturing process   
   is compatible with the leading-edge cell-free engineering that gives   
   the pellets their life-like properties.   
      
   A rapidly expanding technology, cell-free protein expression systems   
   allow researchers to manufacture proteins without the use of living cells.   
      
   Gabrielle Ho, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Bioengineering and   
   co-leader of the project, explains how the team's design work came to be   
   cell-free, a technique rarely explored outside of lab study or medical   
   applications.   
      
   "Typically, we'd use living E. coli cells to make a protein,"   
   says Ho. "E. coli is a biological workhorse, accessible and very   
   productive. We'd introduce DNA to the cell to encourage expression of   
   specific proteins. But this traditional method was not an option for   
   this project. You can't have engineered E. coli hanging on your walls."   
   Cell-free systems contain all the components a living cell requires   
   to manufacture protein -- energy, enzymes and amino acids -- and not   
   much else.   
      
   These systems are therefore not alive. They do not replicate, and neither   
   can they cause infection. They are "living-like," designed to take in   
   DNA and push out protein in ways that previously were only possible   
   using living cells.   
      
   "One of the nicest things about these materials not being alive,"   
   says Mogas- Soldevila, "is that we don't need to worry about keeping   
   them that way."  Unlike living cells, cell-free materials don't need   
   a wet environment or constant monitoring in a lab. The team's research   
   has established a process for making these dry pellets that preserves   
   bioactivity throughout manufacturing, storage and use.   
      
   Bioactive, expressive and programmable, this technology is designed to   
   capitalize on the unique properties of organic materials.   
      
   Mogas-Soldevila, whose lab focuses exclusively on biodegradable   
   architecture, understands the value of biomaterials as both   
   environmentally responsible and aesthetically rich.   
      
   "Architects are coming to the realization that conventional materials - -   
   concrete, steel, glass, ceramic, etc. -- are environmentally damaging and   
   they are becoming more and more interested in alternatives to replace at   
   least some of them. Because we use so much, even being able to replace   
   a small percentage would result in a significant reduction in waste   
   and pollution."  Her lab's signature materials -- biopolymers made from   
   shrimp shells, wood pulp, sand and soil, silk cocoons, and algae gums --   
   lend qualities over and above their sustainable advantages.   
      
   "My obsession is diagnostic, but my passion is playfulness," says Mogas-   
   Soldevila. "Biomaterials are the only materials that can encapsulate this   
   double function observed in nature."  This multivalent approach benefited   
   from the help of Penn Engineering's George H. Stephenson Foundation   
   Educational Laboratory & Bio-MakerSpace, and the support of its director,   
   Sevile Mannickarottu. In addition to contributing essential equipment and   
   research infrastructure to the team, Mannickarottu was instrumental in   
   enabling the interdisciplinary relationships that led the team to success,   
   introducing Ho to the DumoLab Research team collaborators. These include   
   Mogas-Soldevila, Camila Irabien, a Penn Biology major who provided crucial   
   contributions to experimental work, and Fulbright design fellow Vlasta   
   Kubusova', who co-led the project during her time at Penn and who will   
   continue fueling the project's next steps.   
      
   The cell-free manufacturing and design research required unique dialogues   
   between science and art, categories that Ho believed to be entirely   
   separate before embarking on this project.   
      
   "I learned so much from the approach the designers brought to the lab,"   
   says Ho. "Usually, in science, we have a specific problem or hypothesis   
   that we systematically work towards."  But in this collaboration, things   
   were different. Open-ended. The team sought a living-like platform that   
   does sensing and tells people about interactive matter. They needed to   
   explore, step by step, how to get there.   
      
   "Design is only limited by imagination. We sought a technology that could   
   help build towards a vision, and that turned out to be cell-free" says Ho.   
      
   "For my part," says Mogas-Soldevila, "it was inspiring to witness   
   the rigor and attention to constraints that bioengineering brings."   
   The constraints were many -- machine constraints, biological constraints,   
   financial constraints and space constraints.   
      
   "But as we kept these restrictions in play," she continues, "we asked   
   our most pressing creative questions. Can materials warn us of invisible   
   threats? How will humans react to these bioactive sites? Will they be   
   beautiful? Will they be weird? Most importantly, will they enable a new   
   aesthetic relationship with the potential of bio-based and bioactive   
   matter?"  Down the line, the cell-free pellets and biopolymer lattices   
   could drape protectively over our interior lives, caring for our mental   
   and physical health. For now, research is ongoing, the poetry of design   
   energized by constraint, the constraint of engineering energized by poetry   
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Health_&_Medicine   
                   # Stem_Cells # Human_Biology # Lung_Cancer   
             o Matter_&_Energy   
                   # Civil_Engineering # Engineering_and_Construction #   
                   Biochemistry   
             o Earth_&_Climate   
                   # Sustainability # Environmental_Awareness #   
                   Environmental_Issues   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Tissue_engineering o Materials_science o   
             Geotechnical_engineering o Mechanical_engineering o   
             Environmental_engineering o Apoptosis o Protein o Feedback   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_Pennsylvania_School_of_Engineering_and   
   Applied_Science. Original written by Devorah Fischler. Note: Content   
   may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. G. Ho, V. Kubusova', C. Irabien, V. Li, A. Weinstein, Sh. Chawla, D.   
      
         Yeung, A. Mershin, K. Zolotovsky, L. Mogas-Soldevila. Multiscale   
         design of cell-free biologically active architectural   
         structures. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2023;   
         11 DOI: 10.3389/ fbioe.2023.1125156   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230621105432.htm   
      
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