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As plastic pollution increases, so does the effort to find alternative materials with all the favorable properties and none of the pesky \u201cforeverness.\u201d Some are turning to the sea, using the ocean\u2019s bounty to build new materials, like\u00a0CuanTec<\/a>, which uses discarded crustacean shells, and\u00a0Sway<\/a>, which uses seaweed.<\/p>\n Scientists Avinash Manjula-Basavanna and Neel S. Joshi from Northeastern are bioengineering microorganisms like\u00a0E. coli<\/em>\u00a0to produce new, functional materials that show promise as alternatives to conventional plastics. These advanced materials from bacteria perform similarly to plastics but are biodegradable, can regenerate and heal themselves, and can respond to external stimuli such as light.<\/p>\n Manjula-Basavanna and Joshi recently published their work in the journal\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a><\/em>. They call their material MECHS, short for \u201cMechanical Engineered Living Materials with Compostability, Healability, and Scalability,\u201d and is bioengineered by combining\u00a0E. coli<\/em>\u00a0with curli nanofibers and glycerol. Curli nanofibers are microbial biofilms that are self-assembled from a protein building block, and glycerol adds plasticity and allows MECHS to be formed into a film.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n