NSF2026: EAGER: Material morphogenesis using biohybrid vesicles as building blocks

With support from the NSF Molecular & Cellular Biosciences, and the NSF 2026 Fund Program in the Office of Integrated Activities, Professors Sindy Tang and Stanley Qi at Stanford University aim to build a tissue-like composite material, and apply biological principles to change the shape, structure, and function of the material. Specifically, the research will develop functional synthetic units that can perform an elemental topological transition, or a rearrangement in the positioning of the function units.

Elemental topological transitions are important in the morphogenesis of biological systems, such as tissue development, wound healing, and regeneration. Achieving topological transitions using synthetic components will open new opportunities to attain macroscopic restructuring of the material towards material morphogenesis, and lead to new classes of autonomous, self-structuring, and self-healing Engineered Living Materials (ELMs).

This project will provide an opportunity for undergraduate education in an interdisciplinary area, supporting workforce development at the interface of colloidal physics, material science, microfluidics, and DNA technology, not possible in traditional, single discipline-based training.

Biological systems are masters in building complex structures and programming shape changes. Macroscopic shape changes in tissues, or morphogenesis, is composed of a set of elemental topological transitions (e.g., a “T1 transition” where 2 sets of cells exchange neighbors). The morphogenetic capacity of current manmade materials is far from what biology can achieve.

The long-term goal of this project is to build a tissue-like composite material, and apply biological morphogenesis principles to reconfigure the shape, structure, and function of the material. As a first step towards this goal, the specific aims of this research are to create a functional motif consisting of an inducible vesicle, and to demonstrate an elemental topological transition in these vesicles.

The project is expected to advance knowledge at the interface of material science and synthetic and cell biology. It is expected to provide an experimental platform to investigate structured materials capable of relaying both chemical and mechanical signals, where microscopic, elemental topological transitions can be amplified to achieve macroscopic change in material morphology.

This project represents the novel adaptation of biological principles in topological transitions towards material morphogenesis, and the identification of the minimal set of synthetic components and forces needed to drive a topological transition, by replacing a living cell with a minimal cell-free vesicle.

This project is supported to further expand the NSF 2026 Idea Machine winning entry "Engineered Living Materials".

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.