bims-livmat 2026-03-29 papers

Trends Biotechnol. 2026 Mar 25. pii: S0167-7799(26)00087-9. [Epub ahead of print]

Innovating biomanufacturing with coculture-based engineered living materials.

Runze Pan, Shufan Zhao, Yujia Jiang, Min Jiang, Fengxue Xin.

Coculture-based engineered living materials (CCB-ELMs) address the issue of poor stability in microbial coculture systems, which can be applied to biomanufacturing and CO2 conversion. This forum summarizes the latest research progress, core challenges, and future prospects of CCB-ELMs for sustainable biomanufacturing.

Keywords: biomanufacturing; coculture; living materials; microbial consortia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2026.03.002

Biofabrication. 2026 Mar 23.

Bioproduction, bioprotection, and biocontainment in multi-Kingdom microbial systems with 3D spatial control.

LeAnn Le, Gokce Altin-Yavuzarslan, Elizabeth C Klatt, Naroa Sadaba, Angus C Berg, Ava V Karanjia, Sierra M Brooks, Jesse G Zalatan, Lilo D Pozzo, James Carothers, Hal S Alper, Alshakim Nelson.

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are a class of hybrid materials that include engineered microbes encapsulated by a polymer matrix. The biotic and abiotic components define the ELMs design space and can be altered to improve performance and function. While current synthetic materials in the field display robust biocompatibility with both native and engineered living systems, we have a limited understanding of how to leverage 3D form factors to spatially organize and control microbial dynamics within the material. Motivated by this knowledge gap, we employed extrusion-based 3D printing to fabricate multi-material hydrogel constructs for the encapsulation of both single and dual-microbial systems. Core-shell cubic constructs enabled the spatial organization of a constitutive multi-kingdom system of levodopa (L-DOPA)-producing E. coli and betaxanthins-producing S. cerevisiae. This deliberate spatial organization in 3D materials can introduce precise control over bioproduction, bioprotection, and biocontainment, features that are critical to the efficacy of current ELMs. The relative spatial organization of the organisms, as well as the surface area-to-volume ratio were investigated to determine how these design elements impact microbial behavior (metabolite production, growth, expression and cell distribution) over time. We demonstrated that F127-BUM core-shell geometries enable the hierarchical 3D printing of multi-kingdom constructs, offering customizable control over bioproduction, bioprotection, and biocontainment. With the optimization of these core-shell structures for continuous bioproduction, these ELMs could be deployed as compact, sustainable bioreactors in remote environments.

Keywords: Additive Manufacturing; Bioproduction; Engineered Living Materials; Microbial Co-culture; Multi-Material Hydrogels; Multi-kingdom

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1758-5090/ae55cd

NPJ Syst Biol Appl. 2026 Mar 24.

Signed, sealed, delivered: a generalizable model for living biotherapeutic dosing and metabolism.

Vicenzo L DeVito, Bhargav R Karamched.

Living Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs) offer a promising therapeutic strategy for metabolic disorders rooted in gut microbiome dysfunction, yet quantitative frameworks for predicting their efficacy remain underdeveloped. We introduce the Bacterial Compartment Absorption and Transit (BCAT) model, a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic framework that couples probiotic transit, endogenous microbiome metabolism, and enzymatic transformation within a unified dose-optimization setting. Building on the classical CAT model, BCAT incorporates mechanistically-derived colon compartments and treats dosing time as a control variable. We validate BCAT against clinical data for native choline metabolism and SYNB1618 probiotic trials, achieving 5% mean prediction error compared to ~30% for prior two-compartment models. Applying BCAT to trimethylaminuria (TMAU), we predict that ~109 CFU of engineered probiotic, administered 3-4 h before meals, achieves 95% reduction in systemic trimethylamine, matching healthy hepatic clearance. Global sensitivity analysis identifies enzyme expression level as the dominant design parameter, enforcing the broad applicability of this model. The BCAT framework generalizes to any gut microbiome-mediated metabolic disorder and provides quantitative dosing targets to guide live biotherapeutic development.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-026-00685-4

Viruses. 2026 Mar 13. pii: 355. [Epub ahead of print]18(3):

Engineered Bacteriophages: A Next-Generation Platform for Precision Antimicrobials and Therapeutics.

Haonan Shao, Youpeng Deng, Yongpeng Shi, Yi Duan.

The escalating crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the stagnating antibiotic pipeline have renewed interest in bacteriophage therapy. While natural phages offer specificity and low toxicity, their narrow host range, bacterial resistance, and safety concerns limit clinical use. To overcome these hurdles, phages are being engineered using biotechnology. This review outlines the history of phage therapy and systematically summarizes advances in engineered phage preparation, including genetic modification, chemical conjugation, and physical encapsulation. We highlight the application of engineered phages against multidrug-resistant infections, gastrointestinal diseases through gut microbiome modulation, and as targeted delivery vehicles or immune adjuvants in cancer therapy. While significant advances have been made, several critical challenges remain, particularly in regulatory approval, large-scale manufacturing, and ensuring long-term safety. We conclude that engineered phages, as customizable and precise biological tools, are poised to advance precision phage medicine, offering a transformative solution to AMR and fostering convergence across synthetic biology, medicine, and environmental science.

Keywords: bacteriophage; engineered phages; phage therapy; precision medicine; synthetic biology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v18030355

Biomed Eng Lett. 2026 Mar;16(2): 307-328

Integrating living biomaterials into neuroelectronic systems.

Minseong Hong, YeongSeok Ye, Joungwon Kim, Jae-Ick Kim, Jong-Cheol Rah, Youngbin Tchoe.

Neural interface technologies stand at the threshold of a revolution, offering new possibilities for seamless, high-bandwidth interconnection between the human brain and computers. Recent progress has been driven by advances in microscale manufacturing, yielding sophisticated neural probes with diverse form factors capable of recording from macroscopic networks down to single units. These platforms span rigid-to-soft architectures and combine inorganic and organic materials, improving compatibility with the brain's mechanical and chemical properties. Despite these advances, the field still relies primarily on nonbiological electrodes, which face inherent limitations in adapting to the dynamic and complex nature of living neural tissue. Living biomaterials-integrated neuroelectronics, on the other hand, could open new possibilities by enabling technologies that adapt to the host environment, actively establish bidirectional interfaces, conform to living tissue, and support repair by leveraging the inherent regenerative and plastic capacities of living systems. This review provides an overview of recent progress, challenges, and emerging directions in the integration of living biomaterials with neuroelectronic systems. We frame biohybrid neural interfaces as the convergence of in vitro microelectrode arrays and in vivo brain interfaces and organize the review around three themes: (i) cell sources for device integration, (ii) advances in in vitro MEA platforms, and (iii) cell-integrated, living electrodes for in vivo neural interfacing. Considered jointly, the themes point to an integrated path to seamless, adaptive biohybrid neural interfaces.

Keywords: Biohybrid; Living biomaterials-integrated neuroelectronics; Microelectrode array; Neural Interfaces

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-026-00557-0