The Army Synthetic Biology Center for Predictive Materials Design (PreMaDe)

Materials research has had a transformative effect on the Army and the Department of Defense (DoD). Continuous innovation in camouflage coatings, ballistic armor, energetic materials, and sensors for health and human performance monitoring have enabled soldier protection and enhanced performance. To further innovate and support warfighter near-, mid-, and far-term needs, new approaches are needed to predictably design and domestically manufacture next generation materials. Engineered biological materials with a broad palette of chemical structures and functions offer unprecedented opportunities to address this need. However, generalized rules that connect biomaterial design parameters to material performance specifications have remained elusive, especially for multifunctional materials. Key grand challenges include: defining sequencestructure-function-property relationships of engineered biomaterials, integrating biological and non-biological components into responsive ‘smart’ materials, and accelerating the design-buildtest-learn (DBTL) cadence for the discovery and development of advanced biomaterials. To address these challenges, we will establish the Army Synthetic Biology Center for Predictive Materials Design (PreMaDe)