Recipients: Caroline Ajo-Franklin, Matthew Bennett, Lisa Biswal
To address challenges posed by a changing planet and a growing global population, we need advanced living materials that meld the sustainability of naturally occurring materials with the functionality of conventional materials. Here, we propose to work towards this long-term goal by creating a living material capable of dynamically and spatially responding to environmental stimuli. Specifically, we will establish the density of specialized cells embedded in the material needed to achieve cell-cell signaling, measure the impact of these embedded cells on the material’s mechanical properties, and determine the length scales over which signaling can occur.
