The EBICS mission is to create a new scientific discipline for building living, multi-cellular machines that solve real world problems in health, security, and the environment.
EBICS has taken two fundamental approaches to developing biological machines. Using a classic engineering approach, we define the specifications for cellular machines with the desired capabilities, and develop the necessary parts (cells and cell clusters) and machine assembly pathways to construct such a machine. In parallel, we are using a systems biology approach to understand the emergent properties of cells and cell clusters to harness those properties to evolve interacting cell clusters that function within a biological machine with specific capabilities.
Organoids
Leader: Melissa Kemp (Georgia Tech) | MIT:Laurie Boyer, Linda Griffith, Ron Weiss | Georgia Tech: Shu Takayama, Hang Lu | Boston University: Calin Belta | Gladstone Institute: Todd McDevitt | Tufts University: Mike Levin | Princeton University: Stas Shvartsman
The overall goal(s) of the Organoids group is to identify and control the extrinsic and intrinsic parameters governing the initiation of emergent behaviors; to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of emergent behaviors; to explore and model the formation of organoids; to direct the co-differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.
Biobots
Leader: Taher Saif (University of Illinois) | MIT:Roger Kamm, Harry Asada | Georgia Tech: Manu Platt | University of Illinois: Rashid Bashir, Hyunjoon Kong | Tufts University: Mike Levin
The overall goal(s) of the Biobots group is to design, construct and analyze a family of biobots that emerge from interactions between cells and elementary engineered scaffolds and to use the biobot platforms to study emergent properties of neuron cell clusters, cross talk between neurons and muscle, and neuromuscular junctions.
Microphysiological Systems
Leader: Kara McCloskey (UC Merced) | MIT: Roger Kamm, Paula Hammond | Georgia Tech: Manu Platt, Shu Takayama, Yuhong Fan| University of Illinois: Gabi Popescu | Morehouse:Alex Peister | Rutgers University: Maribel Vazquez | University of Georgia: Steve Stice
The overall goal(s) of the MPS group is to identify and use emergent properties in multicellular living systems for building vascularized tissues and organoids.
News
- Dr. Linda Griffith has published a paper on the ‘gut-brain’ connection.
- M-CELS Paper Published in Nature Materials
- MIT launches Center for Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems
- Congratulations to Dr. Gelson J. Pagan Diaz and Dr. Ghazal Naseri Kousehgarani of UIUC!
- Congratulations to Dr. Cynthia Hajal and Dr. Alex Brown of MIT!
The Center for Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center