ArticleNature communications2024
Biocomposite thermoplastic polyurethanes containing evolved bacterial spores as living fillers to facilitate polymer disintegration.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Recent advances in designing high-performance and enzymatically degradable plastics.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Polymer chemistry at the living-material interface.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Spore-Forming Probiotic-Embedded Biomaterials for Targeted Gut Microplastic Biodegradation.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2026Review
- De Novo Engineered Living Materials via Elastin-Like Polypeptide-Mediated Self-Assembly.ACS synthetic biology · 2026Article
- Programmable Assembly of Mechanically Robust and Functional Polymer-Spore Biocomposites in Organic Solvent.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Analysis of Human Gut Microbiota Enzymes for Biotechnological and Food Industrial Applications.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Engineering biology applications for environmental solutions: potential and challenges.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Programming Aliphatic Polyester Degradation by Engineered Bacterial Spores.Biomacromolecules · 2025Article
- Living plastics from plasticizer-assisted thermal molding of silk protein.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Life should be redefined: Any molecule with the ability to self-replicate should be considered life.F1000Research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The field of hybrid engineered living materials seeks to pair living organisms with synthetic materials to generate biocomposite materials with augmented function since living systems can provide highly-programmable and complex behavior. Engineered living materials have typically been fabricated using techniques in benign aqueous environments, limiting their application. In this work, biocomposite fabrication is demonstrated in which spores from polymer-degrading bacteria are incorporated into a thermoplastic polyurethane using high-temperature melt extrusion. Bacteria are engineered using adaptive laboratory evolution to improve their heat tolerance to ensure nearly complete cell survivability during manufacturing at 135 °C. Furthermore, the overall tensile properties of spore-filled thermoplastic polyurethanes are substantially improved, resulting in a significant improvement in toughness. The biocomposites facilitate disintegration in compost in the absence of a microbe-rich environment. Finally, embedded spores demonstrate a rationally programmed function, expressing green fluorescent protein. This research provides a scalable method to fabricate advanced biocomposite materials in industrially-compatible processes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.