RTX BBN to use microsystems and molecular catalysts in attempts to create artificial cells for sensing

Summary points:

• DARPA awards RTX BBN a $10.3 million contract for the Microsystem Induced Catalysis (MICA) project, focusing on integrating molecular catalysts with microsystems for biological control.
• MICA aims to develop artificial cells that mimic living cells for applications like sensing, self-repair, and information processing, enabling machines to combine electronic, mechanical, and biological properties.
• RTX BBN joins a collaborative effort with SRI International, CFD Research, UC Berkeley, and Battelle Memorial Institute to explore innovative ways to control biological functions using molecular catalysts and microsystem integration.

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers have hired a fifth organization for a project to control biological functions using microsystems and molecular catalysts.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $10.3 million contract last week to the RTX Corp. BBN segment in Cambridge, Mass., for the Microsystem Induced Catalysis (MICA) project.

Military researchers may use this kind of research in future hopes of designing nonliving artificial cells able to carry out functions of living cells for sensing, information processing, and self-repair to create machines that combine electronic, mechanical, and biological properties that ultimately could sense, reason, upgrade, and repair themselves.

RTX BBN joins SRI International Menlo Park, Calif.; CFD Research Corp. in Huntsville, Ala.; the University of California at Berkeley; and Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, on the MICA project.

Electron and molecular flows

SRI won a $10.7 million contract; CFD Research won a $6.6 million contract; UC Berkeley won a $3.2 million contract; and Battelle won a $10.3 million MICA contract.

Electron flow in transistors sometimes are similar to molecular flows in biochemical reactions in living cells, and their similarities suggest that cells and electronic components could interact in a predictable and controllable way.

The MICA program focuses on using microsystems to control biological functions, and will seek hardware demonstrations of molecular catalysts immobilized to microsystem surfaces and controlled by physical forces generated by the microsystem.

Tell me more about artificial cells in sensing applications ...

• Artificial cells hold promise for sensing applications because they can mimic biological cells while being synthetically customizable. These cells typically consist of a physical boundary, such as a lipid vesicle membrane, encapsulating biologically active components like enzymes, gene sequences, or cell-free biosensing modules. Artificial cells can enable biosensing in environments or conditions where living cells may not survive, and can be created for stimuli responsiveness like detecting small molecules, mechanical forces, bacterial signals, or pathogens. Applications of artificial cell-based biosensors span biotechnology, environmental monitoring, disease diagnosis, and synthetic biology research. Challenges involve controlling membrane permeability for selective analyte access and integrating complex feedback circuits.

Additionally, the program focuses on modeling and simulation of such integrated molecular microsystems, with an emphasis on biomolecular catalysts.

The MICA program's design and simulation portion will include ways to predict the dynamic performance of molecules integrated with microsystems. The project's fabrication portion will include ways to place and immobilize molecules at microsystem interfaces to help the microsystem control catalyst activity.

A major thrust is placing and attaching catalytic molecules to microsystems to drive biological function. The program will emphasize compatibility with standard microelectronics manufacturing.

Predicting molecule structure

The MICA contractors will determine how to predict molecule structure and function, and how to couple to a field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and CMOS digital logic circuits.

The MICA program involves companies with expertise in molecular design, microsystem design, and fabrication to integrate molecules with microsystems to control molecular function; and companies with expertise in modeling and simulating the performance of microsystem and molecule performance to develop tools for predicting integrated system performance.

For more information contact RTX BBN online at www.rtx.com/who-we-are/we-are-rtx/transformative-technologies/bbn; SRI International online at www.sri.com; CFD Research at www.cfd-research.com; UC Berkeley at www.berkeley.edu/research; Battelle at www.battelle.org, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil/news/2025/closing-integration-gap.