Conference: Consolidating Community in Living Materials: Towards an International Conference Series

Over the past two decades, considerable interest has focused on developing engineered living materials (ELMs). This emerging class of materials leverages embedded living cells to achieve functionalities such as self-assembly, self-repair, sensing, manufacturing, and energy generation. ELMs offer potential solutions to issues sometimes associated with conventional materials through (1) manufacture using low-resource/low-waste methods, (2) engineered multifunctionality, and (3) onsite production for reduced transport distances and remote area capability. This approach affords the opportunity to reduce reliance on non-renewable resources and enable resilient infrastructure. Nevertheless, several challenges must be overcome to advance ELMs as a viable alternative to traditional materials, including demonstrating safety, improving longevity, stiffness, and strength, and scaling up manufacturing. To enable the creation of an ELM industry responsive to the Dear Colleague Letter “Funding Opportunities for Engineering Research in Biotechnology” (NSF 24-040), the developmental bottlenecks must be addressed. This will require inputs from experts in synthetic biology, microbiology, materials science, multiple engineering disciplines, as well as the social sciences, architecture, and law. This award will support an ELM Workshop, a unique US-based opportunity for all stakeholder groups to engage in discussion of research needs and translational opportunities. This workshop will solidify the USA’s leading role in the nascent ELM industry, foster ideation around the creation of ELM research institutes, and support development of multidisciplinary curricula to educate a workforce in this field. The ELM Workshop will advance knowledge through sharing of current research, identifying the principal challenges to manufacturing and deployment of ELMs, and building a community that includes both researchers and industry affiliates, as well as government representatives. The workshop is scheduled to take place on October 22-24, 2025 in Houston, Texas at the Bioscience Research Collaborative, a space dedicated to collaborative life science research between Rice University and the Texas Medical Center. = The program will include keynote addresses and other research presentations, discussion panels, breakout discussions, networking opportunities, and a poster session featuring early career researchers. Keynote presentations will cover a range of topics including artificial intelligence and computation, off-earth applications, molecular assembly, and use of consortia. An immediate outcome of the 2025 ELM Workshop will be increasing the focus on ELM research and development. Additionally, a recurring ELM Workshop series will be established for sustained progress and online activities expanded for consistent communication in the field. Results of the event in the form of recordings of the event will be shared (with presenter approval) via a YouTube channel. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.