We envision a future that involves transitioning to the wide-spread use of bio-derived and biodegradable plastics from renewable feedstocks by leveraging the power of biotechnology and synthetic biology for material biomanufacturing.
To do this, our cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional team will converge advances in:
Goals
Our center’s goal is to advance the engineering knowledge and technologies for material design, scalable biomanufacturing, and optimized processing of high performance synthetic biological materials. To achieve this goal, we will:
- Strengthen Research Capabilities: Expand research infrastructure and capabilities;
- Strengthen the Research Team: Add expertise in the biologicalization of material science and manufacturing and fill gaps in areas required for team science;
- Collaborate with Industry Partners: Solidify partnerships with industry to help identify ‘use- inspired’ research challenges and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology focusing on synthetic biological materials;
- Promote Collaboration Across Disciplines: Create an environment for multidisciplinary and convergent research focused on understanding the needs, desires, and challenges to creating and adopting novel synthetic biological material technologies;
- Build a Scientific Reputation.