Weaving the Perfect Biosensor
Purpose
To communicate the novel concept of using bacterial cellulose and genetically engineered yeast to create biosensing materials.
Client
Marc Dryer
Date
April 2021
Medium
Journal Cover
Tools
Maya, Photoshop, Procreate, Illustrator
Primary Audience
Educated lay
Rough Sketches
The project began with several rough concept sketches that encompassed the idea of creating a biosensing material from both yeast and bacteria. These sketches focused on representing different colours and shapes of yarn to represent bacteria (rod-shaped, blue) and yeast (spherical, yellow). The various iterations explored different ways of how the two could come together to create a material.
Comprehensive Sketch
A final comprehensive sketch was created after receiving feedback from peers, prior to creating the final 3D piece.
Asset Creation
The major hurdle for this piece was creating the knitted material and yarn balls/skeins. A variety of different methods were tested, including using MASH, texture maps, as well as adding fuzz using XGEN to create a natural look and feel for these objects.
References
Gilbert, C., Tang, T., Ott, W., Dorr, B. A., Shaw, W. M., Sun, G. L., . . . Ellis, T. (2021). Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures. Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/s41563-020-00857-5