Research
Core Research Topics
The three core research topics for LiMC2 were identified following listening sessions and research webinars. They are:
The core goal of developing a new class of engineered living multifunctional material systems is inspired by and will be responsive to the rules of life, including:
- Evolution and adaptation,
- Autonomous self-healing and regeneration,
- Harvesting of renewable energy, and
- Recycling of elements and molecules
To enable such materials, unique strategies will have to consider many challenges and opportunities, including processes that allow biological, synthetic, and hybrid materials with a range of complementary functions to be integrated over different length scales. These materials will be designed to harvest energy from their environment, to adapt to this environment over their useful lifetimes, and to be recycled or reabsorbed into the environment at end of use.
A particular challenge is to devise materials that repair damage through self-healing mechanisms, therefore, creating regenerative materials that are resilient and sustainable. Such advances will be considered across several applications and could lay the foundations of a manufacturing revolution that offer an era for more sustainable infrastructure, new robotics technologies, and new medical strategies, amongst others.
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