MAE Seminar: “Engineered Living Materials Capable of Self-Growing, Self-Healing, and Self-Cleaning”

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Recent advances in synthetic biology and materials science have given rise to a new form of materials, namely engineered living materials. Currently, developing engineered living materials that combine the structural properties of traditional construction materials with attributes of living systems, including the ability to self-grow, self-repair, self-clean, detect environmental threats, and capture carbon dioxide, has emerged as a new promising research area. In this talk, self-growing bricks, self-healing concrete, and self-cleaning surfaces are introduced as examples to discuss the general principles to be applied when designed living construction materials to perform specific functions in open environments, the main challenges to make them a commercial reality, and the future directions in this emerging interdisciplinary field.