# Engineered Living Materials for the Delivery of Engineered Probiotics and Therapeutics

> **NIH NIH R56** · TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION · 2022 · $788,387

## Abstract

Project Summary
Localized infections are often treated with systemic antibiotics, which leads to undesired side effects for the
patient and contributes to the increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. This work will result in an innovative
platform technology, multifunctional engineered living materials and organelles (ELMOs), that alters the
metabolic niche occupied by pathogenic organisms and delivers therapeutics. These ELMOs consist of synthetic
1) probiotics engineered with catabolically-active bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) and embedded in
hydrogels, 2) standalone catabolically-active BMCs embedded in hydrogels, and 3) BMC-derived shells as
therapeutic nanodevices that are released by embedded cellular proliferation. Using this technology, we will build
multifunctional intravesical delivery systems that float in the bladder and enable sustained performance to treat
urinary tract infections. The proposed interdisciplinary approach leverages advances in synthetic biology and
biomaterials and will lead to new technologies designed to treat a wide range of infections, including medical
device-associated infections and cancers, where the metabolite availability and dysbiosis contribute to disease
progression. Published and preliminary data demonstrate the feasibility of creating engineered living materials
comprised of synthetic materials and probiotics and using these materials for controlled release. Published and
preliminary data demonstrate that BMCs can be embedded within organisms or isolated to be used as
catabolically-active or multivalent binding nanoparticles. Ultimately this work will enable new medical devices
that treat infections, beginning with urinary tract infections (UTI), using a multimodal approach that acts against
pathogens by modulating the local ecosystem. To realize this goal, three specific aims are proposed: 1) Design
intravesical therapeutic and organism delivery systems, 2) Engineer BMCs into non-uropathogenic bacteria and
into hydrogels to compete with pathogens, and 3) Determine the effect of ELMOs containing BMC-engineered
organisms, catabolically-active BMCs, and therapeutic nanodevices on uropathogen clearance in a mouse
model of UTI. The assembled team is well qualified to answer these questions based on multidisciplinary
expertise in engineered living materials (Ware), bacterial microcompartments (Kerfeld), UTI (Subash), and
clinical urology (Zimmern).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10644157
- **Project number:** 1R56EB032395-01
- **Recipient organization:** TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Taylor H Ware
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $788,387
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10644157

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10644157, Engineered Living Materials for the Delivery of Engineered Probiotics and Therapeutics (1R56EB032395-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10644157. Licensed CC0.

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