TY - JOUR T1 - Ultra-lightweight living structural material for enhanced stiffness and environmental sensing JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.07.19.452887 SP - 2021.07.19.452887 AU - Heechul Park AU - Alan F. Schwartzman AU - Tzu-Chieh Tang AU - Lei Wang AU - Timothy K. Lu Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/19/2021.07.19.452887.abstract N2 - Natural materials such as bone, wood, and bamboo can inspire the fabrication of stiff, lightweight structural materials. Biofilms are one of the most dominant forms of life in nature. However, little is known about their physical properties as a structural material. Here we report an Escherichia coli biofilm having a Young’s modulus close to 10 GPa with ultra-low density, indicating a high-performance structural material. The mechanical and structural characterization of the biofilm and its components illuminates its adaptable bottom-up design, consisting of lightweight microscale cells covered by a dense network of amyloid nanofibrils on the surface. We engineered E. coli such that 1) carbon nanotubes assembled on the biofilm, enhancing its stiffness to over 30 GPa, or that 2) the biofilm sensitively detected heavy metal as an example of an environmental toxin. These demonstrations offer new opportunities for developing responsive living structural materials to serve many real-world applications.Competing Interest StatementT.K.L. is a co-founder of Senti Biosciences, Synlogic, Engine Biosciences, Tango Therapeutics, Corvium, BiomX, Eligo Biosciences, Bota.Bio, Avendesora, and NE47Bio. T.K.L. also holds financial interests in nest.bio, Armata, IndieBio, MedicusTek, Quark Biosciences, Personal Genomics, Thryve, Lexent Bio, MitoLab, Vulcan, Serotiny, Avendesora, Pulmobiotics, Provectus Algae, Invaio, and NSG Biolabs. Other authors declare no competing interests. ER -