Sugar-fueled Dissipative Living Materials

This paper reports:

• The  first  example  of  synthetic  living  material featuring   dissipative   behaviors   directly controlled  by  the  fuel  consumption  of  their constituent cells
• A  synthetic  dissipative  system  that  interfaces biology  and  shows  repeated  macroscopic phase transition
• Detailed  examination  of  kinetics  of  fuel consumption by living cells at a molecular level

Impact:

• This  work  significantly  expands  the  scope  of dissipative  materials  by  bringing  it  one  step closer to integration with biology.
• This work provides a new tool and knowledge to  design  synthetic  dissipative  systems  with living cells.