Researcher(s)
- Sidra Qasim, Medical Diagnostics, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Clara Chan, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Delaware
Abstract
Engineered living materials (ELMs) are materials made from living cells that can grow, repair themselves, and perform useful tasks. They are similar to natural biofilms, which are communities of bacteria that form on surfaces, but are designed by scientists to give living cells new and useful properties. One way to give these materials new properties is by controlling how minerals are incorporated into the material. Iron and manganese oxidation are natural processes that produce minerals. These minerals can make materials stronger, help trap harmful metals, and remove pollutants from water. Learning how to control where these minerals form on engineered living materials could aid in environmental cleanup, protective coatings, and other biotechnology applications. Therefore, the goal of this project was to attach MofA, a protein that reportedly enables bacteria to oxidize metals, to the surface of an engineered living material made from the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. To do this, we made several new versions of MofA by joining it to SpyCatcher or DogCatcher, proteins that act like tiny molecular hooks that can covalently attach MofA to the living material. We also created truncated versions of MofA to learn which parts of the protein are necessary for its function. Several modified MofA proteins were successfully made and remained able to create iron minerals. Future work will focus on testing whether MofA can create manganese minerals, studying additional versions of the protein, and attaching active MofA to engineered living materials. Through learning how MofA helps bacteria form iron minerals in nature, we hope to build living materials that can produce useful mineral coatings in specific locations, opening the door to new technologies for cleaner environments, stronger materials, and other biotechnology applications.