Living Foundries
Abstract
The goal of the Living Foundries program was to create a revolutionary, biologically based manufacturing platform for the DoD and the Nation. With its ability to perform complex chemistries, be flexibly programmed through DNA code, scale, adapt to changing environments, and self-repair, biology represents one of the most powerful manufacturing platforms known. Living Foundries sought to develop the foundational technological infrastructure to transform biology into an engineering practice, speeding the biological design-build-test-learn cycle and expanding the complexity of systems that could be engineered. Ultimately, Living Foundries aimed to provide game-changing manufacturing paradigms for the DoD, enabling adaptable, on-demand production of critical and high-value molecules. Research thrusts focused on the development and demonstration of open technology platforms to prove out capabilities for rapid (months vs. years) design and construction of new bio-production systems. The result was an integrated, modular infrastructure across the areas of design, fabrication, debugging, analysis, optimization, and validation -- spanning the entire development life-cycle and enabled the ability to rapidly assess and improve designs. Success was predicated on tight coupling of computational design, fabrication of systems, debugging using multiple characterization data types, analysis, and further development such that iterative design and experimentation would be accurate, efficient and controlled. Demonstration platforms were challenged to build a variety of DoD-relevant, novel molecules with complex functionalities, such as synthesis of advanced, functional chemicals, materials precursors, and polymers (those tolerant of harsh environments).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2021
- Source ID
- 99411704d0a28b8577cbebc032c6995a