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Bacterial Wires are Golden
Bridging prosthetics and human skin via E.coli-made proteins, and more!
Raphael Kim, PhD
November 22, 2024
In partnership with
Hello Biodesign Community,
As the weekend approaches, let’s take a moment to reflect on and highlight some key developments and events in the world of biodesign.
In Brief:
Bacterial “Biowires”: Manchester Students win Gold at iGEM 2024
The University of Manchester’s undergraduate team earned a gold medal at the iGEM 2024 Grand Jamboree for their project, E.lectrode, which enhances artificial limb functionality.
The issue with myoelectric prosthetics and motion artefacts (image taken from taken from iGEM 2024 University of Manchester team)
The team tackled a common issue in myoelectric prosthetics: unreliable electrode connections caused by sweating and slippage. Using synthetic biology, they engineered Escherichia coli (E.coli) to produce electricity-conducting nanowires derived from (another microbe) Geobacter sulfurreducens, designed to bind directly to skin proteins. This innovation would improve prosthetic precision and comfort.
Intended application of the team’s skin-specific nanowires. The E-pili would coat the electrode, maintaining the electrical connection between the electrode and the skin even in the event of movement. Image adapted from X.C. Wang and taken from iGEM 2024 University of Manchester team. Upper Limb Prosthesis for Traumatic Above Elbow Amputation for Volleyball Playing.
Supported by the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and other university departments, the team applied a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework to examine the social and economic implications of their work.
This achievement highlights how interdisciplinary collaboration can address real-world challenges and advance human-machine interfaces. Read more about their work here.
Biodesign Catch-Up 🤓
Missed the Biodesign Symposium 2024? Watch It Online!
If you couldn’t attend the Biodesign Symposium: How to Grow a Biodesigner held in June 2024, we’ve got good news—the full recording is now available on YouTube, kindly made available by Biodesign Challenge.
This free, conference-style event brought together educators, researchers, and practitioners to explore how Biodesign bridges Biology, Technology, Art, and Design.
Key discussions revolved around formalizing Biodesign education and aligning learning outcomes with workplace demands, providing valuable insights for anyone involved in this multidisciplinary field.
At a total of seven hours, the recording is packed with expert talks, case studies, and panel discussions. Perfect for getting stuck right into biodesign trends and strategies.
Skeptics’ Corner 🤔
Gif by aetv on Giphy
Non-Scripted PowerPoint Slides in NASA Archiving?
This week, NASA’s archive, NTRS (NASA Technical Reports Server), added an intriguing entry: “Biofabrication in Space – A Perspective”. The presentation explores biofabrication’s potential role in human Mars exploration, including tissue generation for disease modeling and drug testing under microgravity.
The entry highlights how space’s unique conditions—absence of gravity, dominence of surface tension, and other forces—offer insights into cellular behaviors unseen on Earth. This could transform bioprocesses and open new avenues for organ and stem cell generation. Fascinatingly, this marks the first use of “biofabrication” as a keyword in NASA’s archives since 2021.
While the content sparks interest, the way the presentation slides are archived leaves room for improvement, as the slides are somewhat challenging to follow since it does not have the speaker’s notes or script.
Perhaps NASA could consider adding extra information on its open-source archives. Despite this, the document aligns with findings published in Nature and hints at exciting prospects for biofabrication in space exploration.
Have insights about NASA’s database management or biodesign in space? We’d love to hear from you—drop us a message!
Publication Spotlight 📚
Biodesigning with Living Organisms in Fablabs? Towards a Research Agenda
Author: Ena Naito
Abstract:
Recently, there has been a surging interest in designing with living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae and plants towards sustainable agendas. Beyond creating replacements for conventional materials, scholars have increasingly paid attention to how engaging with biodesign processes, including the ongoing growing and nurturing of living cultures, could support designers to grow capabilities to facilitate new imaginaries of the way we co-design with organisms and wider ecological systems.
An understudied - yet crucial - implication of this development, is that these engagements must be fostered and disseminated by infrastructures in the first place. Building upon literature and an ongoing case, this paper foregrounds Fablabs as a fertile infrastructure that could expand opportunities to design with living organisms.
By mapping out six preliminary levers that could be probed to mobilise Fablab’s infrastructure, this study calls for expanding opportunities for biodesigning, and to open up a discussion for future research agendas.
Paper details here.
Seeking and Inviting 🔍
From Nicholas Rapagnani:
“Open to jobs, projects, collaborations, ideas: In the last couple of weeks I had some (spare/free) time which I dedicated to improving and updating my latest portfolio - especially regarding the last experiments I had going on with mycelium composite materials (grapes stalks and wool). Have a look and enjoy it!”
Nicholas’ portfolio can be found here.
From SYLIA:
“We are offering a paid internship position. We are looking for a proactive and motivated intern to join SYLIA for three months starting immediately.
SYLIA’s aim is to develop a mycelium-based leather alternative. We believe that by producing locally and sustainably we can offer next generation materials whose environmental and social impact contributes to the changes needed for a flourishing future. The team is supported by the Exist Founding Scholarship, and HTW’s InnoTech Hub.SYLIA Intern (m/f/d) – Full-time · Berlin.”
For more info, visit Sylia’s website here.
That’s it for now, wishing you an inspiring weekend filled with curiosity and creativity—see you next week!
Best wishes,
Biodesign Academy.
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