Guest Seminar - Rational Bio-Interface Designs: From Soft-Matter Engineering to Living Materials

Interfacial molecular interactions are at the heart of all biological processes. Ideal bio-interfaces would facilitate signal transductions by providing optimized biomaterial-cell interactions. With the increased capability to manipulate matter at different length scales, new bio-interface materials are being developed through different material selections and designs. Today, my talk will first introduce our efforts on the development of functional soft materials for bio-interfaces. I will showcase a few examples of unconventional, room-temperature patterning techniques with liquid metals and their applications in soft electronics and biomedical applications. Next, I will discuss several strategies for integrating semiconductors with living bacteria for biohybrid systems. The systems enable the discovery of transient signal transduction within the microbial community and the coupling of photo-responsive materials with living bacteria for microbial modulation. I will specifically highlight a material synthetic biology approach to yield microbial nanowires and semiconductor nanoparticles, where the nanoparticles can couple the optical modulation with bacterial energy metabolism. Lastly, I will highlight my recent research on soil-inspired chemical systems, where multiscale soft-hard material integration has yielded a responsive matrix. In addition to enhancing the microbial growth in vitro, the responsive matrix can modulate the gut microbiome in vivo for disease therapy. These rational bio-interface studies will help develop multiscale living materials to meet emerging needs, from the human-machine interface in telemedicine, biomedical therapy to sustainable agriculture.