Engineered artificial tissues and living materials built from aqueous droplet-based networks have vast scope in regenerative medicine, bioelectronics, and soft robotics. Engineered living materials (ELMs) are designed to be autonomous, adaptive, self-assembling, and bioinspired. However, ELMs are still limited in their ability to accurately mimic and cooperate with native tissues. ELMs that can perform compartmentalization, cell-cell communication, and the selective exchange of biologics are yet to be developed. There remains a gap regarding living-nonliving hybrid materials that are stable and biocompatible. This thesis proposes the bioinspired, bottom-up construction of aqueous droplet-based cellular networks to develop biomimetic tissues and ELMs and addresses the gaps in the current research. Preliminary experiments on droplet interface bilayer formation and gravity-mediated phase transfer did not consistently reveal stable droplets and stable bilayers.
