(422a) Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division Award: Molecular Bioprocessing As an Emerging Paradigm for Advancing Medicine

Nature is unparalleled in its structural and functional diversity. In many cases, nature has provided us with a blueprint to design and assemble both natural and synthetic building blocks to create a new generation of functional, organized, and responsive materials. We have taken cues from nature to design materials with unique structural and functional properties, along with new process technologies with the ability to produce a wide range of biomimetic structures. In this talk I will highlight our recent efforts to exploit the interface of biology with materials science to address clinical applications. In particular, we have identified and engineered cell-lytic enzymes, and generated hybrid enzyme-containing surfaces with tailored activity against hospital-acquired infections (e.g., MRSA), food-borne illnesses (e.g., Listeria), and bacillus spores. Such activity provides a safe and potentially broadly applicable route to eliminating toxic compounds and pathogenic microorganisms from common surfaces. We have also developed a genetically encoded protein-based nanoparticle-generating system for remote regulation of gene expression by low-frequency radio waves (RFs) or a magnetic field. In mice with stem cell or viral expression of these genetically encoded components, remote stimulation of insulin transgene expression with RF or a magnet lowers blood glucose. We have also demonstrated a similar RF/magnetic field platform that can inhibit hypothalamic glucose-sensing neurons to regulate metabolism and behavior in mice. This robust, repeatable method for remote regulation in vivo may ultimately have applications in basic science, technology and therapeutics.