MeSoMat · Metabolic soft matter with life-like properties

A fundamental difference between man-made and living matter is metabolism: the ability to dissipatechemical energy to drive many different chemical processes out of equilibrium. Metabolism endowschemical systems within living organisms with properties that are standard in biology but odd in chemistry:the capability to process information, to move and to react to the external world.My goal is to endow soft materials with dynamic life-like properties. I have chosen four: molecularcomputation, movement, self-construction and the capacity to entertain complex chemical conversationswith living cells. To do so I will embed stimuli-responsive materials with a biocompatible syntheticmetabolism capable of sustaining autonomous chemical feedback loops that process information andperform autonomous macroscopic actions. My approach combines concepts from systems chemistry,synthetic biology and DNA molecular programming with soft materials and uses a biochemical systemthat I have contributed to pioneer: DNA/enzyme active solutions that remain out of equilibrium byconsuming a chemical fuel with non-trivial reaction kinetics. This system has three unique properties:programmability, biocompatibility and a long-term metabolic autonomy.Metabolic matter will be assembled in two stages: i) enabling metabolic materials with dynamic chemical,biological and mechanical responses, and ii) creating metabolic materials with unprecedented properties,in particular, the capacity of self-construction, which I will seek by emulating embryogenesis, andthe ability to autonomously pattern a community of living cells. By doing this I will create for the firsttime chemical matter that is both dynamically and structurally complex, thus bringing into the realm ofsynthetic chemistry behaviors that so far only existed in biological systems. In the long term, metabolicmatter could provide revolutionary solutions for soft robotics and tissue engineering