New technique for engineering living materials and patterns
Scientists at the University of Warwick developed a new technique for engineering living materials called ‘MeniFluidics’ – published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology, which opens the door for further innovations and creation of arts, from Engineered living materials, fundamental research into cellular interactions, to bio-art and tissue engineering. A new class of materials that exploit the properties of living cells are Engineered living materials.
For developing ELMs various techniques such as 3-Dimensional printers have been used, due to technical complications these techniques are typically limited for static patterns and suffer.
Fluidic channels were used to make patterns with bacterial cells.
Living cells have several properties that non-living products do not have. A crucial step forward in the direction of using living materials, for usages such as organs on a chip is the capability of managing the emerging behaviors of cells and arranging them right into arbitrary patterns. This is the reason why new innovations are being developed to obtain such a capacity.
A team from the University of Warwick including physicists and biologists have developed a new technique for controlling cellular patterns called MeniFluidics.
The researchers executed structures into the gel
surface, grounded on the physics of meniscus generation. Water evaporation from the gel products leads to the development of open channels which can be made use for guiding the direction and cellular expansion’s speed.
“I trust that Menifluidics will certainly make it possible for new possibilities in biophysical and biomedical research and applications such as biofouling and antibiotic resistance,” said Dr. Vasily Kantsler, Department of Physics, University of Warwick.
“As MeniFluidics is simple and flexible, we this method wish will be widely used by microbiologists, engineers, biophysics, and artists“, said Dr. Munehiro Asally, School of Life Science, the University of Warwick, England.
Author: Sruthi S
