Expand tool sets for bioremediation and resource recycling.

Engineering Biology & Materials Science

Materials for detection and removal of contaminants.

Technical Achievement: Engineer stimuli-responsive, biodegradable polymers with on-demand self-healing properties, enabling active repair of fouled or damaged filter membranes.
Technical Achievement: Demonstrate cell-free sensors, embedded in shelf-stable materials that can detect water contaminants at EPA limits (e.g., lead, fecal coliforms).
Technical Achievement: Demonstrate cell-free sensors, embedded in shelf-stable materials that can robustly report on contaminants within 15 minutes.¹
Technical Achievement: Enable multiplexed detection of 10 or more chemical contaminants (excluding RNA) in a single device.
Technical Achievement: Engineer novel biomaterials that incorporate obligate hydrocarbonoclastic microbes (i.e., “oil-eating” bacteria).²

Technical Achievement: Synthesize porous materials completely or mainly from refuse (e.g., plants, tree bark, shrimp shells); similar to molecular sieves (zeolites) or metal-organic frameworks, these materials may function for diverse purposes (e.g., CO₂ sequestration, water purification, metal uptake, sensors).
Technical Achievement: Develop mechanism-based toolkit to approach material breakdown coupled to genetic circuits/chassis engineering to provide new platforms (e.g., hydrolysis, singlet oxygen generation, photo-driven cleavage) for remediation.

Silverman, A.D., Akova, U., Alam, K.K., Jewett, M.C., & Lucks, J.B. (2020). Design and optimization of a cell-free atrazine biosensor. ACS Synthetic Biology 9(3), 671-677.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00388
Yakimov, M.M., Timmis, K.N., & Golyshin, P.N. (2007). Obligate oil-degrading marine bacteria. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 18(3), 257-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2007.04.006