# Dissecting the non-growing-but-active state of a hybrid bacteria-material microdevice

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $86,051

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Dissecting the non-growing-but-active state of a hybrid bacteria-material microdevice
Recent work has been interested in engineering commensal bacteria to address various biomedical
challenges, such as specific drug delivery, gene-editing using CRISPR-Cas, and continuous synthesis of drugs
at disease sites. In contrast to non-living devices, bacteria can address these unmet needs because they
already live in the human body and at disease sites, move actively towards stimuli, detect and respond to
stimuli, and synthesize drugs continuously. However, a significant challenge is to prevent the uncontrolled
proliferation of bacteria, while keeping their active functions. To address the challenge, the community must
have a foolproof safety measure that prevents the replication of therapeutic bacteria in any condition. This
measure will ensure that the bacteria cannot replicate in patients and the large ecosystem. Without replication,
mutation is also rare, and mutants cannot spread. Furthermore, a non-replicating entity can be dosed more
precisely than an auto-replicating entity. Thus far, however, attempts to stop bacterial replication also
compromise the therapeutic activity of bacteria. To address this critical bottleneck, my lab has created bacteria
that cannot grow but keep high metabolism by integrating synthetic materials with bacteria. The non-growing-
but-active bacteria continue to synthesize proteins, move, and respond to chemical stimuli. My research will
further investigate the underlying mechanisms that govern the non-growing-but-active state of the bacteria.
The new understanding will then be used to boost and enable specific features of the non-growing-but-active
bacteria relevant for future biomedical applications. I will leverage my prior work about synthetic gene
expression, bacterial information processing, and CRISPR-dCas9 molecular tools. The work will reveal a new
material-protein paradigm for inhibiting growth but preserving the activity of living cells. Furthermore, the work
will enable a superior, safe, and active hybrid bacteria-material microdevice for broad biomedical applications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11115152
- **Project number:** 3R35GM142788-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Cheemeng Tan
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $86,051
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-09-15 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11115152

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11115152, Dissecting the non-growing-but-active state of a hybrid bacteria-material microdevice (3R35GM142788-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11115152. Licensed CC0.

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