Nick Carroll, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of New Mexico, was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for a project that could eventually lead to smart implantable medical devices and other biomedical and technological advances.
Carroll’s research which focuses on genetically-engineered biomaterials created by the interplay of biology and polymer physics seeks to develop synthetic cell populations that can “talk” to each other and transmit information, much like the electrical impulses that send commands to a computer or a phone. Instead, here proteins are passed cell to cell, sending instruction through molecules to synchronize cooperative activity in what is known as “quorum behavior.”