NANO-ENABLED AGRICULTURE & BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Living biosystems, both unicellular and multi-cellular, consists of cells with self-contained complex organization due to numerous macromolecules and biophysical cues that responds to and interacts with their microenvironment. Based on this scientific revelation, controlling and monitoring of substantial cellular behavior is a fundamental aspect to further improve physiological functions of living biosystems with direct and indirect effect on living biosystem-based applications (i.e., agricultural and biomedical engineering). Among the various factors, the chemical and mechanical factors are regarded as the main influential elements to control cellular behavior, and the interaction between these factors and cells has revealed that the effect of these factors on the cellular environment occur in a specific order through intracellular signaling pathways which might be either positively stimulated or negatively inhibited. As applied to living systems, the scale-related cues are often ignored for controlling cell behavior in spite of the essential fact that cells have a size ranging from 100 nm to 100 μm which makes it of utmost importance to develop proportional nanoscale-engineered platforms to facilitate and maximize controlling of the cellular behaviors. Using various nanoscale platforms, we reveal the importance of scale-based factors and their significant impact on agricultural and biomedical engineering and we aim for the increased potential use of the developed nanoscale platforms for improving the functions of living biosystems in the near future.