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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 16, 2025

Reliably Engineering and Controlling Stable Optogenetic Gene Circuits in Mammalian Cells

Reliably Engineering and Controlling Stable Optogenetic Gene Circuits in Mammalian Cells

Published on: July 6, 2021

Optoregulated Protein Release from an Engineered Living Material.

Shrikrishnan Sankaran¹, Aránzazu Del Campo^1,2

¹INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Campus D2 2, 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany.

Advanced Biosystems

|July 7, 2020

Summary

This study introduces living materials made with engineered bacteria in hydrogels. These materials release therapeutic proteins on demand when exposed to blue light, overcoming key challenges in biopharmaceutical delivery.

Keywords:

bacterial hydrogel living material optogenetics protein release

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Last Updated: Dec 16, 2025

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Area of Science:

Biomaterials Science
Synthetic Biology
Optogenetics

Background:

Protein-based biopharmaceuticals face challenges including high production costs, limited in vivo stability, and difficulties in controlled release.
Current methods for therapeutic protein delivery often struggle with achieving prolonged and precisely regulated release kinetics.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a novel living material system for the encapsulation and controlled delivery of functional proteins.
To utilize optogenetics for external regulation of protein release from engineered bacteria within a biomaterial.

Main Methods:

Engineering bacteria to express and secrete a red fluorescent protein in response to blue light.
Embedding engineered bacteria within agarose hydrogels to create living materials.
Investigating light-induced protein release dynamics based on light exposure parameters.

Main Results:

Fabrication of bacterial hydrogels capable of light-regulated protein secretion.
Demonstrated spatially confined protein expression and dosed release over several weeks.
Showcased external control of protein release by modulating light exposure area and extent.

Conclusions:

Living materials offer a versatile platform for overcoming hurdles in protein-based biopharmaceutical delivery.
Optogenetic control of bacteria within hydrogels enables tunable and sustained protein release.
Simple material and genetic engineering strategies can yield complex functional biomaterials for therapeutic applications.