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SUMMARY:Biologically Programmed Living Materials for Advanced Sustainable 
 Applications
DTSTART:20201006T130000
DTEND:20201006T140000
DTSTAMP:20260506T084453Z
UID:fe3740b72cc82ef2fc550cc1e45dd69782fbc345c102b178155119b9
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Anna Duraj-Thatte\, Harvard\, USA\nOver the last few decad
 es\, living cells have been employed as factories to make organic molecule
 s\, polymers\, drugs and fuels. Lately\, living cells are being engineered
  to make materials and/or to modulate its properties\, giving rise to an e
 xciting field of Living Materials. Built on the able foundations of synthe
 tic biology\, materials engineering and nanotechnology\, Living Materials 
 provides an unprecedented platform to build a sustainable environment.\nIn
  this talk\, I will present some of my recent works\, which demonstrates t
 he very first biomedical and environmental applications of Living Material
 s. I have developed the world’s first microbial ink for 3D printing of l
 iving materials. This unique microbial ink is produced from engineered bac
 teria and can also be embedded with desired microbes to enable printing of
  complex 3D architectures having various functions. Further\, in an effort
  to mitigate the menace of plastic pollution\, I have engineered bacteria 
 to develop AquaPlastic\, world’s first water-processable and biodegradab
 le bioplastic. AquaPlastic is aqua-healable\, aqua-weldable\, aqua-moldabl
 e\, imprintable\, coatable and also resistant to chemicals. Finally\, I wi
 ll also present how Living Materials can be employed to generate sustainab
 le materials for biomedical applications. By harnessing synthetic biology\
 , I have designed and developed mucoadhesive and anti-inflammatory hydroge
 ls that can be sprayed directly in the gut serving as an innovative wound 
 healing strategy for the gut lumen.\nI will conclude by presenting my visi
 on on Living Materials for Advanced Sustainable Applications that effectiv
 ely utilizes the living characteristics such as programmability\, intellig
 ence\, specificity\, responsiveness and manufacturability.\n\nBio: Anna Du
 raj-Thatte received her Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology\, where
 in she worked on protein engineering and directed evolution. Then she purs
 ued her postdoctoral research at Wyss Institute\, Harvard University. Duri
 ng which\, her research focused on developing engineered living materials 
 for various applications\, including the first demonstration of therapeuti
 c and self-regenerating functionalities of living materials. Her research 
 interests also include protein-based materials for environmental applicati
 ons and actively working towards commercialization of her research innovat
 ions. She was the Grand Prize Winner of American National Science Foundati
 on (NSF) Idea Machine competition. She was also selected as a Deep Tech Pi
 oneer and member of Harvard Innovation Lab’s Venture Incubation Program.
    \n 
LOCATION:Zoom https://epfl.zoom.us/j/99474488391
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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