Light Controlled Designer Biofilms and Bacteriabots using Photoswitchable Bacterial Adhesions

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Seraphine Wegner
• Subject Area: Biochemistry ; Biological and Biomimetic Chemistry
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405620560

Bacteria are of great interest for bioengineering both in biofilms, where within a community they can perform diverse functions which individual bacteria can’t and in bacteriabots, where bacterial microswimmers deliver cargos within complex environments. In both cases, the challenge lies in controlling bacteria adhesions and their dynamic regulation. In the case of biofilms, not just the interaction strength between the bacteria but also their dynamics determine how they organize and perform as a community. Yet, we are lacking the tools and the understanding how the dynamics of bacterial cell-cell adhesions impact biofilm development, architecture and function. Also for bacteriabots, dropping the cargo at the target site is important for efficient delivery. Yet, the static binding of cargo and bacteria is a major problem in this and in the design of autonomous bacteriabots that don’t require external supervision and assemble themselves on demand and disassemble once at the destination. In this proposal, we will address these challenges in controlling biofilms and building autonomous bacteriabots building on the previously established photoswitchable bacterial adhesions. These photoswitchable bacterial adhesions allow us to dynamically switch the adhesion on and off through blue light illumination with high spatiotemporal precision. First of all, we will investigate how we can photoregulate the gas-liquid-solid-like transitions in multibacterial aggregates and thereby control their 3D structure, the compacting, quorum sensing and cell sorting. Secondly, we will focus on how bacterial cell-cell adhesion dynamics regulate biofilm development, architectures and functionality in co-cultures. On the other hand, we will use a recently discovered photoactivation mechanisms through bioluminescence to produce autonomous bacteriabots. For this purpose, we will first develop bacteria with bioluminescence reports that pick-up their cargo under certain environmental signals, transport them away and drop them in environments that no longer have the signal. Finally, we will also explore bacteriabots with active communication between the cargo and the bacteria, which will expand their autonomy. Ultimately, this will pave the way for engineering multispecies biofilms and autonomous bacteriabots for different biotechnological applications.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants