Fig. 1.

Design of living materials and devices. (A) Schematic illustration of a generic structure for living materials and devices. Layers of robust and biocompatible hydrogel and elastomer were assembled and bonded into a hybrid structure, which can transport sustained supplies of water, nutrient, and oxygen to genetically engineered cells at the hydrogel–elastomer interface. Communication between different types of cells and with the environment was achieved by diffusion of small molecules in hydrogels. (B) Schematic illustration of the high stretchability and high robustness of the hydrogel–elastomer hybrids that prevent cell leakage from the living device, even under large deformations. Images show that the living device can sustain uniaxial stretching over 1.8 times and twisting over 180° while maintaining its structural integrity. (C) Viability of bacterial cells at room temperature over 3 d. The cells were kept in the device placed in the humid chamber without additional growth media (yellow), in the device immersed in the growth media as a control (green), and in growth media as another control (black; n = 3 repeats). (D) OD₆₀₀ and (Insets) streak plate results of the media surrounding the defective devices (yellow) and intact devices at different times after 1 (black) or 500 times (green) deformation of the living devices and immersion in media (n = 3 repeats).