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Coupling synthetic biology and programmable materials to construct complex tissue ecosystems

  • Synthetic Biology Prospective
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Abstract

Synthetic biology combines engineering and biology to produce artificial systems with programmable features. Specifically, engineered microenvironments have advanced immensely over the past few decades, owing in part to the merging of materials with biologic mimetic structures. In this review, the authors adapt a traditional definition of community ecology to describe “cellular ecology,” or the study of the distribution of cell populations and interactions within their microenvironment. The authors discuss two exemplar hydrogel platforms: (1) self-assembling peptide hydrogels and (2) poly(ethylene) glycol hydrogels and describe future opportunities for merging smart material design and synthetic biology within the scope of multicellular platforms.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Rahul Chib for thoughtful discussions and comments. This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL133163, R21ES027962, T32GM008550 to A.M.D.), the National Science Foundation (1537256), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (1017521), and the March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Award (5-FY16-33 to J.P.G).

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  1. Departments of Biomedical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Catherine S. Millar-Haskell

  2. Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Allyson M. Dang

  3. Departments of Biomedical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Jason P. Gleghorn

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  1. Catherine S. Millar-Haskell
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Correspondence to Jason P. Gleghorn.

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Millar-Haskell, C.S., Dang, A.M. & Gleghorn, J.P. Coupling synthetic biology and programmable materials to construct complex tissue ecosystems. MRS Communications 9, 421–432 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.69

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