Paper: Material Ecologies for Synthetic Biology
December 6, 2015
The cities of the future could be built by microbes
August 9, 2016
The Computational Colloids project will be presented at ACADIA 2016 (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture). The paper which will be published in October 2016 will be presented in Michigan. The abstract is as follows:
The paper details the computational modeling work to define a new type of responsive material system based on genetically engineered bacteria cells. We introduce the discipline of Synthetic Biology and show how it may be possible to program a cell to respond genetically to inputs from its environment. We propose a system of synthetic bio cementing where engineered cells, living within a soil matrix, respond to pore pressure changes in their environment when the soil is loaded, by synthesizing new material and strengthening the soil. We develop a prototype CAD system which maps genetic responses of individual bacteria cells to geotechnical models of stress and pore pressure. We show different gene promoter sensitivities may make substantial changes to patterns of consolidation. We conclude by indicating future research in this area which combines both in-vitro and in silico work.
Authors:
Martyn Dade-Robertson
Javier Rodriguez Corral
Anil Wipat
Helen Mitrani
Meng Zhang
Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa
Luis Henan
