Abstract:

Engineered living materials are an emerging research field at the interface between synthetic biology and materials science (especially, polymer science). While materials science provides the fundamental idea about materials construction and a deep understanding on structure-property relationship, synthetic biology affords the possibility to engineer living organisms to fit into the needs of materials. With the development, crossover, and integration of synthetic biology and materials science, novel responsive engineered living materials have been cotinuously emerging. Recently, an engineered living material based on semi-interpenetrating polymer network was reported by the teams of Dr. Dai Zhuojun at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology and Prof. You Lingchong at Duke University. This research used the genetic circuit to control the density-dependent cell lysis and the subsequent release of reactive functional proteins which then polymerize in situ to form a semi-interpenetrating network with the chitosan matrix and anchor the effector proteins. The resulting capsule not only protects the cells from the environment, but also becomes resilient to environmental perturbations. This modular approach to engineered living materials holds great promise for diverse applications such as active biological therapy.

Key words: living materials, semi-interpenetrating polymer network, synthetic biology, SpyTag, SpyCatcher

摘要：

生物活体功能材料是合成生物学和材料科学（特别是高分子科学）交叉的研究领域：合成生物学可以实现对生物体的重新编辑，材料科学则提供了材料构建的基本思想及对构效关系的全面理解。随着合成生物学和材料科学的不断发展、交叉和融合，各种响应性、程序化的生物活体功能材料不断涌现。中国科学院深圳先进技术研究院的戴卓君研究员和杜克大学的游凌冲教授团队借鉴高分子科学中互穿网络的概念，通过基因回路设计控制细胞的程序性凋亡，实现胞内反应性功能蛋白质的可控释放，促进原位的蛋白质聚合和固定反应，形成具有蛋白质与壳聚糖半互穿网络结构的微凝胶，既可保护固定于其中的微生物不受环境侵害，又可运用微生物应对环境扰动并影响环境，从而提供了一个模块化的生物活体功能材料平台，在生物医药等领域展现出广阔的应用前景。

关键词: 活体功能材料, 半互穿聚合物网络, 合成生物学, 谍标签, 谍捕手