When
Friday, September 18, 2026, at 12:00 p.m.
Ingmar Riedel-Kruse
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
University of Arizona
"Programming Multicellular Bacterial Patterns and Biomaterials with Synthetic Adhesins"
Drachman A114 | Zoom link
ABSTRACT
Multicellular systems, from bacterial biofilms to human organs, form spatial patterns and interfaces to achieve complex cooperative functionalities. Our understanding and ability to rationally engineer and control such active matter is still limited. To this end, my lab develops synthetic and optogenetic approaches that enable the versatile control of cell-cell and cell-surface adhesion for multicellular bacterial patterning. I will discuss the molecular engineering and biophysical characterization of such synthetic adhesins. I will then demonstrate their utility as a build-to-understand approach for basic scientific questions such as studying the physics and combinatorial self-assembly of active colloids, the programming of tissue-level interface and tiling patterns that mimic developmental programs, and the evolutionary origins of multicellular life. I will also demonstrate practical applications for health and sustainability, such as tunable biomaterial properties (visco-elasticity) and microbial consortia for small molecule biosynthesis, e.g., converting greenhouse gases to value chemicals.