MSE Seminar: Rong Yang (Cornell CBE)

Bio-informed design of polymer coatings to manipulate microbial behavior

Microbes like bacteria and yeast are ubiquitous. The manipulation of their phenotype and behavior, such as pathogenicity and biosynthesis, has been predominantly enabled by genetic modification or small soluble molecules (e.g., antibiotics). In fact, microbes often seek out and settle on insoluble surfaces for nutrients and protection, creating a biointerface between the living and the synthetic worlds. To gain insight into the biointerface, research in the past two decades has unraveled the fundamental thermodynamics and hydrodynamics that have guided the design of numerous antifouling/antimicrobial surfaces. However, the biological effects of insoluble materials remain elusive. Recent advances in precision polymer synthesis have enabled fine-tuning of the molecular interactions at length scales relevant to the biochemical and biophysical activities, which in turn enabled a bio-informed materials design approach. Using this approach, we demonstrated that insoluble polymer coatings could reduce virulence, rewire metabolism, and optimize metabolic flux. This talk features two recent examples of bio-informed polymer design, including (i) living coatings to reduce marine biofouling and (ii) a fresh concept to optimize biocatalytic pathways by creating synthetic cell walls with tailored perm-selectivity for pathway intermediates. These examples highlight the potential of polymeric materials to program microbial functions. We seek to underscore the importance of understanding detailed microbe-material interactions and to provide an outlook on extending the material-bacteria interactions beyond “kill or repel” towards signaling and control.

Bio:
Rong Yang is an assistant professor at the R.F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. She received her B.S. in chemical engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT, working with Karen Gleason. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, working with Daniel Kohane and Robert Langer, where she later became an assistant professor before joining Cornell in 2019. Her research lies at the intersection of material science and biomedical engineering, with a focus on all-dry polymer synthesis techniques, functional nano- or living materials with controlled morphology and reactivity, and their application in drug delivery, infectious disease treatment, and environmental sustainability. Her work has been recognized by the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, among others.