Overview
The NSF BioPACIFIC MIP operates a one of a kind user facility dedicated to creating a nexus for synthetic biology and materials to revolutionize high-performance polymers. Users are uniquely able to elucidate biomaterial structure and function to achieve materials-by-design, construct new bio-derived functional monomers from living organisms, access novel sequence-specific materials (e.g. peptoids), synthesize stimuli-responsive “smart” biomaterials, scale-up biomaterial production, and incorporate state-of-the-art theoretic simulation and machine learning algorithms.
Mission
The integration of synthetic biology, chemistry, and materials science enables scalable production of high-performance, bio-based materials with precise control over structure and function. Engineered microbes produce high-functionality monomers that support material circularity and degradability, while synthetic chemistry enables sequence-defined polymers and advanced architectures. Critically, this positions the MIP to support a national biomaterials innovation strategy and advances U.S. leadership in biotechnology and biomanufacturing.
The BioPACIFIC MIP (DMR-2445868) merges these new realities by providing access to scientific expertise, data science tools, and automated experimentation within a one-of-a-kind user facility. BioPACIFIC MIP enables access to advanced polymers with superior properties and performance beyond those achievable by traditional methods, driven by five strategic objectives: (1) enabling access to cutting-edge infrastructure, (2) developing high-throughput workflows for bio-derived monomer and polymer production, (3) linking biomaterial structure to function, (4) integrating data-driven experimentation, and (5) building a modern skilled workforce to power the burgeoning bioeconomy.
An interdisciplinary team of faculty and researchers delivers education and hands-on training to users across academia and industry, offering access to state-of-the-art tools and expertise to US academic and industry-based researchers, as well as hands-on training opportunities such as an annual summer school. Through its robust knowledge-sharing ecosystem, BioPACIFIC MIP enhances reproducibility and expands the impact of experimental data, workflows, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven discovery methods to catalyze the inverse, property-driven design and development of next-generation biotechnology-relevant materials and their translation to commercial products through startups and industry partnerships.
BioPACIFIC MIP at a glance
Leadership
- Scientific Directors
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- Javier Read de Alaniz, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Director, PI
- Heather Maynard, Professor, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering, Co-Director, Co-PI
- Craig Hawker, Professor, Materials, Chemistry, and Biochemistry, Co-PI
- Yi Tang, Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Co-PI
- Administration and Operations
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- Tal Margalith, Executive Director
- Adam Stieg, Executive Director
- External Advisory Board
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- Geoff Coates, Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell
- LaShanda Korley, Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
- Kermit Kwan, Technical Advisor, Platform R&D, Solvay
- Gabriel Lopez, Vice President for Research, UNM
- Josh Speros, Innovation Manager, BASF
- Karen Wooley, Distinguished Professor, Chemistry, Texas A&M
- Huimin Zhao, Professor, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering, UIUC
- Ronald Zuckermann, Sr. Research Advisor, Biological Nanostructures Facility, The Molecular Foundry
Connect with Us
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Related Links
GlycoMIP
Launched concurrently with BioPACIFIC MIP, GlycoMIP aims to accelerate glycomaterials science and innovation.
About
- NSF Materials Innovation Platforms
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The Materials Innovation Platform (MIP) program is a mid-scale infrastructure program in the Division of Materials Research (DMR) designed to accelerate advances in materials research. MIPs respond to the increasing complexity of materials research that requires close collaboration of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams and access to cutting edge tools. These tools in a user facility benefit both a user program and in-house research, which focus on addressing grand challenges of fundamental science and meet national needs. MIPs embrace the paradigm set forth by the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), which strives to "discover, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials twice as fast, at a fraction of the cost," and conduct research through iterative "closed-loop" efforts among the areas of materials synthesis/processing, materials characterization, and theory/modeling/simulation. In addition, they are expected to engage the emerging field of data science in materials research. Each MIP is a scientific ecosystem, which includes in-house research scientists, external users and other scientists who, collectively, form a community of practitioners and share tools, codes, samples, data and know-how. The knowledge sharing is designed to strengthen collaborations among scientists and enable them to work in new ways, fostering new modalities of research and education/training, for the purpose of accelerating discovery and development of new materials and novel materials phenomena/properties, as well as fostering their eventual deployment.
The major activities of a MIP include:
- Develop next-generation experimental and computational tools, as well as advancing the capabilities of the current state-of-the-art tools;
- Conduct in-house research by a transdisciplinary team in a focused topic designed to address a grand challenge of fundamental science and meet a national need;
- Operate a user facility that provides unique materials research tools, samples, data, and technical services open to a diverse community of external researchers at various institutions; and
- Serve as an educational focal point for training the next generation of tool developers and users.
- The California NanoSystems Institute
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The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated research facility with locations at UCSB and UCLA and is one of the California Institutes for Science and Innovation (Cal-ISI) established in 2000. CNSI serves as a hub that leverages public and private investment to drive interdisciplinary research, translates discoveries into knowledge-driven commercial enterprises, and educates the next generation of scientist and engineers. CNSI members represent a multi-disciplinary team of some of the world's preeminent scientists from the life and physical sciences, engineering, and medicine. The work conducted at the CNSI represents world-class expertise in four targeted areas of nanosystems-related research including Energy, Environment, Health-Medicine, and Information Technology. CNSI houses a number of world-class shared use experimental facilities and startup-focused incubators and is home to the Center for Scientific Computing (high-performance computing), the Center for Science and Engineering partnerships (professional development, education, outreach, and evaluation), and the recently funded NSF Quantum Foundry (DMR-1906325).
The BioPACIFIC MIP is funded by an NSF cooperative agreement (DMR-2445868)
