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TerraForms: 3D Bioprinted Synthetic Soil Aggregates

bioprinting

Small spatial scales, opacity, and chemical complexity make microorganisms difficult to study in natural soil.

EMSL has created a three-dimensional bioprinted habitat that mimics natural soil and provides a chemically defined, translucent alternative for studying microorganisms. Synthetic soil aggregates (SSAs) retain the porosity, permeability, and patchy resource distribution of natural soil.

These SSAs can be integrated into a multi-omics workflow for genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, and biogeochemical assays. The SSAs are designed to help researchers quantify microbial-scale processes in situ and achieve high-resolution data related to environmental properties and microbial ecology.

bioprinted synthetic soil aggregates
A) iPhone image of bioprinted SSAs.
B) and C) Scanning electron microscopy images of the internal structure of the synthetic soil.
(Jayde Aufrecht | EMSL)

Research Application

Supporting the Biogeochemical Transformations Integrated Research Platform, these resources help unlock how the spatial and chemical structure of soil influences microbial processes underground. This essential knowledge can help us improve predictive models for carbon cycling underground and understand ecological interactions between microorganisms.

Available instruments

  • Confocal microscopy
  • Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
  • Sequencing

Tips for Success

Users can choose which microorganisms to print into their synthetic soil as well as any minerals or solid substrates to add. Users can get single-aggregate-level resolution for downstream analyses, including optical imaging, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, transcriptomics, and genomics. Ship your microorganisms to EMSL as freezer stocks or agar plates and EMSL staff will culture and print the microbes for you.

Contributing Teams and Resources

EMSL develops and deploys capabilities for the user program by conducting original research independently or in partnership with others and by adapting/advancing science and technologies developed outside of EMSL. In some instances, EMSL directly deploys mature capabilities developed by others where there is value for the EMSL user community. The following grants/activities, PI’s and teams contributed to the development of this capability: 

Jayde Aufrecht, DE-AC05-76RL01830, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Related Publication

D. Smercina, et al., Synthetic Soil Aggregates: Bioprinted Habitats for High-Throughput Microbial Metaphenomics. Microganisms. 10 (5) (2022) [DOI: 10.3390/microrganisms10050944] 

Contacts