Learning from nature - Novel synthetic biology approaches for biomaterial design

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Anton V. Bryksin, Georgia Institute of Technology; Ashley C. Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology; Michael M. Baksh, Georgia Institute of Technology; M. G. Finn, Georgia Institute of Technology; Thomas Barker, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2014-04-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 Acta Materialia Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2014.01.019
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Acta Biomaterialia
• ISSN: 1742-7061
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 1761
• End Page: 1769
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was funded in part by the NIH (R21EB013743, R01EB011566, R21EB015663); the Georgia Tech Center for Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability Seed Grant (DoD, W81XWH1110306); and an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to ACB.
• Keywords: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE; SENSITIZED SOLAR-CELLS; EXTRACELLULAR-MATRIX; Virus particles; Synthetic biology; SUPRAMOLECULAR STRUCTURES; Engineering; IMPRINTED POLYMER NANOPARTICLES; Biomaterials; Science & Technology; Materials Science, Biomaterials; BUILDING-BLOCKS; Technology; DIRECTED SYNTHESIS; TOBACCO-MOSAIC-VIRUS; CROSS-LINKING; Engineering, Biomedical; Directed evolution; M13 THIN-FILMS; Tissue engineering; Materials Science
• Research Categories: Engineering, Biomedical

Abstract

Many biomaterials constructed today are complex chemical structures that incorporate biologically active components derived from nature, but the field can still be said to be in its infancy. The need for materials that bring sophisticated properties of structure, dynamics and function to medical and non-medical applications will only grow. Increasing appreciation of the functionality of biological systems has caused biomaterials researchers to consider nature for design inspiration, and many examples exist of the use of biomolecular motifs. Yet evolution, nature's only engine for the creation of new designs, has been largely ignored by the biomaterials community. Molecular evolution is an emerging tool that enables one to apply nature's engineering principles to non-natural situations using variation and selection. The purpose of this review is to highlight the most recent advances in the use of molecular evolution in synthetic biology applications for biomaterial engineering, and to discuss some of the areas in which this approach may be successfully applied in the future.