The cooperation between multiple copies of individual units from which evolves a collective self is intimately associated with the concept of stigmergy. Sponges are considered the first form of animal life. This work is bio-inspired and evolved after the PI realized that the stigmergy scaffold of a sponge bears a remarkable resemblance to chemical gardens/lost city hydrothermal field constructs, sponges are an intercalating network of the protein spongin associated with silicate or carbonate on which cells are assembled. A robust technology to produce libraries of stigmergy scaffolds consisting of protein intercalated chemical gardens composed of an inorganic component (silicate, phosphate, carbonate with variations in cations and other additives) with proteins or other macromolecules will be presented. The optimized stigmergy scaffolds were further modified with cue molecules that promote cell adhesion and growth. A series of protocols and analytical methods to characterize this new generation of biomaterials was developed. Marine cells were cultured on surface programmed scaffolds and protocols for attachment and culture of these cell lines on the stigmergy scaffold along with tests for viability of the cells on the constructs were developed.These studies can have a transformative impact on understanding the evolution of animal multicellularity with specific emphasis on the role that scaffolds associated with cell adhesion molecules may have played in promoting unicellular life forms to assemble and cooperatively evolve into a collective<br/>The construction of narrow diameter vascular grafts is very challenging. The technology developed also affords a convenient, inexpensive, green and innovative route to narrow diameter protein tubes and programmable hybrid materials that can potentially serve as ideal scaffolds for the 3D cell culture of mammalian cells to produce vascular grafts.

Sponge mimetic tubules: Programmable stigmergy scaffolds for 3D marine, mammalian cell culture and bioelectronics

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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