Optogenetic Engineered Living Materials

Engineered living materials (ELM) is a new frontier in materials research that uses living microorganisms to augment nonliving materials with lifelike capabilities, such as responding to external stimuli. This is achieved by genetically programming the microorganisms in an ELM with stimulus-sensing modules. A popular stimulus to remotely control various ELM functions is light, which has been realized thanks to optogenetics. This chapter describes methods to create a simple ELM capable of sensing light and responding to it by producing and releasing a drug. The material component of the ELM will be a Pluronic F127-based hydrogel and the living component will be optogenetically engineered bacteria. Such ELMs are being developed to create smart therapeutic solutions for challenging chronic diseases and variations in the design to improve performance and safety will be mentioned.