The Potential of Self-Maintainable Living Materials

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are emerging as a new class of autonomous and self-maintainable systems that integrate metabolically active organisms within structural scaffolds to create materials capable of sensing, self-repair, adaptive response, and long-term functional persistence. Unlike conventional smart materials, which remain externally programmed and limited in regenerative capacity, ELMs leverage the intrinsic capabilities of microorganisms, fungi, algae, and mammalian cells to support continuous environmental interaction and feedback-regulated behavior. These systems retain metabolically active biological components that can grow, sense, communicate, adapt, and, in some cases, self-repair and self-regenerate, positioning autonomy as the defining capacity of these next-generation materials. Recent advances in synthetic biology, including programmable gene circuits, quorum-sensing communication, and metabolic engineering, enable living components to execute closed-loop decision-making and maintain functionality with minimal external input. These capabilities are driving innovations across construction, agriculture, environmental remediation, bioenergy, and biomedicine, where ELMs enable functions such as damage-triggered mineralization, adaptive pollutant degradation, and therapeutic self-regulation. Despite this promise, key challenges remain in evolutionary stability, biocontainment, long-term viability, and scalable manufacturing. This Review examines the design principles, current challenges, and translational pathways toward self-maintainable and autonomous living materials capable of sustained operation in real-world environments.