Related papers: Directed Evolution of Microorganisms for Engineere…
Mesoscale molecular assemblies on the cell surface, such as cilia and filopodia, integrate information, control transport and amplify signals. Synthetic devices mimicking these structures could sensitively monitor these cellular functions…
Directed evolution of proteins has been the most effective method for protein engineering. However, a new paradigm is emerging, fusing the library generation and screening approaches of traditional directed evolution with computation…
In medical-related tasks, soft robots can perform better than conventional robots because of their compliant building materials and the movements they are able perform. However, designing soft robot controllers is not an easy task, due to…
An adequate control of cell response in tissue engineering applications is of utmost importance to obtain products suitable to clinical practice. This paper is the first part of a series of two connected publications in which we study via…
Natural plants are exemplars of adaptation through self-organisation and collective decision making. As such, they provide a rich source of inspiration for adaptive mechanisms in artificial systems. Plant growth - a structure development…
Fluid ferroelectrics, a recently discovered class of liquid crystals that exhibit switchable, long-range polar order, offer opportunities in ultrafast electro-optic technologies, responsive soft matter, and next-generation energy materials.…
There is an unmet need for artificial intelligence techniques that can speed up the design of growth strategies for cultured tissues. Cultured tissue is increasingly important for a range of applications such as cultivated meat,…
Evolutionary Computation is a group of biologically inspired algorithms used to solve complex optimisation problems. It can be split into Evolutionary Algorithms, which take inspiration from genetic inheritance, and Swarm Intelligence…
Learning from nature has been a quest of humanity for millennia. While this has taken the form of humans assessing natural designs such as bones, butterfly wings, or spider webs, we can now achieve generating designs using advanced…
Long-duration human missions to Mars will require autonomous systems capable of converting in situ resources into structural materials, tools, and functional components. More broadly, such systems represent a class of resource-limited…
Microfiltration technology is a widely used engineering strategy for fresh water production and water treatment. The major concern in many applications is the formation of a biological fouling layer leading to increased hydraulic resistance…
Stimulus-responsive DNA-hydrogels with swelling capabilities are a promising class of materials for biomedical applications such as drug delivery and biosensing. However, translation of these systems to microscale applications requires…
Biomaterial systems have allowed for the in vitro production of complex, emergent tissue behaviors that were not possible with conventional 2D culture systems allowing for analysis of the normal development as well as disease processes. We…
Artificial swarm systems have been extensively studied and used in computer science, robotics, engineering and other technological fields, primarily as a platform for implementing robust distributed systems to achieve pre-defined…
Living systems are capable of locomotion, reconfiguration, and replication. To perform these tasks, cells spatiotemporally coordinate the interactions of force-generating, "active" molecules that create and manipulate non-equilibrium…
Microfluidics-based biochips are soon expected to revolutionize clinical diagnosis, DNA sequencing, and other laboratory procedures involving molecular biology. Most microfluidic biochips are based on the principle of continuous fluid flow…
Deployable structures, essential across various engineering applications ranging from umbrellas to satellites, are evolving to include soft, morphable designs where geometry drives transformation. However, a major challenge for soft…
Directed evolution is a molecular biology technique that is transforming protein engineering by creating proteins with desirable properties and functions. However, it is experimentally impossible to perform the deep mutational scanning of…
The capacity to adapt can greatly influence the success of systems that need to compensate for damaged parts, learn how to achieve robust performance in new environments, or exploit novel opportunities that originate from new technological…
We study the probabilities of evolution based on random mutations and natural selection. We conclude that evolution to multicellular eukaryots, or even prokaryots, is unlikely to be the result of only random mutations. Complex organisms…