A changemaker’s toolkit: This September, I will travel to Luxemburg and Germany to help deliver Engineered Living Materials 2024, an international conference that convenes leading expertise in materials science, synthetic biology, biotechnology, and biophysics around the “what” and the “how” of our tangible future.
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The problem ELMs address
In short, we need living materials because the traditional materials, products, and methods of construction are inadequate, if not altogether obsolete.
Greenhouse emissions plague the entire lifecycle. Toxicity is prevalent. Extractive manufacturing is on a whole other level of a burning platform. Not to mention that traditional materials depreciate from day one: concrete erodes, metal corrodes, timber loses structural strength, corners chip, dyes fade, and so on.
While they have taken us to this point, traditional ways of creating, operating, and decommissioning our built environment are a liability going forward because they are based on outdated assumptions. The chief of those is that humans cannot sabotage this planet.
A circular, regenerative, equitable, and future-ready economy demands a new class of materials. Before we can thoroughly substitute living materials for their obsolescent counterparts, we must help commercialise them whenever needed.
We know all this. So, what’s a solution?
Engineered living materials or ELMs
A category of biobased materials, ELMs are engineered with living cells, which gives them the ability to adapt. Since we know how a glow warm glows, a chameleon changes its colour, and countless species secrete chemicals to wade off threats, imagine buildings that no longer required artificial lighting, regular makeovers, or disinfectants?
Living cells enable ELMs not only to adapt but to heal and regenerate. An ELM can coded to be the building system we designed it to be for decades, self-regenerating and adjusting to its conditions.
With ELMs, we can build the way nature does, sequestering carbon, breaking down toxins, and growing building systems. Breaking from today’s “single function” approach that requires structure, cladding, sealants and paint, ELMs allow us to grow the entire wall with the required structural, acoustic, colour, fire-retardant, and lighting properties.
Synthetic biology is another term we can get to know here. This scientific discipline underpinning living materials is an emergent cross-disciplinary area that addresses the development of new biological systems for practical engineering applications.
Examples of ELMs
ELMs are an immensely diverse group. They can be plant-based (rhyzomal), crystalline (polymer), cellulose (microbial), bacterial (fungal), coral (mineral), animal (muscular or skeletal), or insect (secretion).
To illustrate the breadth of what is commercially available:
1.Portland cement – historically, the binder of concrete – is a carbon disaster. Companies such as Prometheus Materials in the US have developed an algae-based, carbon-negative alternative. And it already has some bio-based alternatives in production.
2. Okom Wrks Labs has a replacement for steel (and other biggies) through its structural mycelium solution.
3. Ecovative is showing how mycelium can replace traditional packaging, fabric, leather, and even bacon!
4. TerreformONE is growing gorgeous and durable furniture from mycelium.
Today, the materials in all of these products would be considered as once living. The living organisms within them are rendered inert. In other words, they are deactivated. This means that should you scratch those shoes or chip that paver or bench, they will only heal if reactivated, not automatically, as is usually the vision and hope of their creators.
They are sold deactivated because the public opinion and the regulation that responds to it are not ready. How is it that we are yay-okay about carcinogens, mutagens, climate change, and guns but lose our scruples at the possibility of our mushroom-based table needing repair from an accidental scratch? I chose to see hope in the power of stories and familiarity.
What are the main obstacles to ELM adoption?
- Awareness – ELMs may look or feel different, perhaps the way recycled paper or low-VOC paints are used to. “Growth” can also trigger (unfounded) worries about mould and the like, which is why we have been unable to get samples from the US and Europe through Australian Border Protection. Movies may also be to blame: if my table can heal a scratch, couldn’t it grow a monster? There is, of course, a reason why such mutations are called sci-fi. A cut finger never grows an eye as it heals despite containing the full genetic code. All that said, most inventions come up against stigma while consumer expectations adjust, and we must be prepared to attend to both legitimate and perceived concerns.
- Product scale – while we can put a skyscraper together from dead parts in a matter of weeks, it takes time to grow living things. Given the intended lifespan of infrastructure, perhaps we can learn to allow for that time in return for resilience we sacrifice otherwise.
- Commercialisation – Most ELMs need help to get out of the lab! This is largely due to the Catch-22 of needing funding to verify performance to warrant funding. The future of materials needs willing participants, sandboxes, and research collaborations. Thank goodness, we are really good at that stuff!
“Quantitative and qualitative research in the US and the EU indicates that public awareness and understanding of synthetic biology is low. Equivalent studies undertaken in Australia show a similarly low awareness but indicate generally positive sentiments towards how synthetic biology could improve our way of life in the future (Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, 2017).”
– Synthetic Biology in Australia: an Outlook to 2030 (ACOLA)
Ahead of the Engineered Living Materials 2024, I will interview ELM creators so we can better understand these materials and their potential. Stay tuned for a dispatch from LivingMaterials2024.
