This scientist builds living machines

As an associate professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ applied physical sciences department, Ronit Freeman uses design principles to build innovative technologies. She specializes in combining and molding biological components into functional materials where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

“The inspiration is anything that nature can do, and the medium is any biological material that exists in nature,” she explains. “We can design and chemically modify peptides, DNA, nucleic acids, sugars, lipids — any architectural building block that is biological. It’s a chemical approach to materials design.” 

From synthetic cells to a rapid test for respiratory infections, Freeman has generated a pipeline of groundbreaking technologies that address global challenges in health care by emulating how cells build, signal and manufacture needed components. 

“My company is my lab,” she says. “We do everything from the molecular design of a chemical to the validation and application of it. We produce assets and then find an established partner who has the manufacturing, distribution and pharmacy pipeline to get it to the market.” 

Creating cell factories

In her early research, Freeman uncovered how to link peptides together by using DNA like a molecular glue. With this technique, she achieved multiple scientific “firsts,” from creating a synthetic collagen, the molecule that makes up our skin to, most recently, generating synthetic cells that can serve specific functions — like delivering drugs directly to infected cells and making plastics that eventually biodegrade. 

“We want to make materials for tasks, not to last,” she says. “We want those materials to serve a task, degrade and disappear.” 

Most cell function and flexibility come from its cytoskeleton, which provides a framework for the cell — much like the frame of a house. Freeman’s synthetic cells have functional cytoskeletons that can change shape and react to their surroundings. 

The goal of this research is to make “little factories” that can imitate living cells to produce molecules like insulins. 

“It would mean a future with much less waste and a much smaller footprint,” Freeman says. “That’s the idea.” 

Solving global health challenges

In partnership with Carolina pulmonologist James Hagood, she is using synthetic peptides to break down scar tissue in the lungs. In another experiment, her team applied heat to force the malfunctioning proteins linked to cognitive decline to twist in the opposite direction, which allows enzymes to break them down. It’s an instrumental discovery they documented in a recent Nature Communications paper.  

Any biological material is fair game for Freeman — even sugar. 

In 2020, Freeman created GlycoGrip, a rapid test to detect COVID-19. Her idea was to mimic a cellular process in a test by using sugars to capture viruses like a brush captures lint. GlycoGrip will hit the market soon.  

Freeman’s latest evolution of the test can identify multiple upper respiratory viruses at once, including COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus. “The goal is one swab that tests for everything,” she said. 

Breaking barriers

The lab she’s built includes members from all over the world who specialize in everything from chemistry to engineering to biology and medicine.  “Lines between disciplines have to blur, and barriers have to come down for innovation to happen,” she said. 

Also important to her achievements has been the support of her family, including her mother in Israel, whom she calls each morning, and her family here. “When I step out of my lab coat each day and walk into my home in Chapel Hill, I am engulfed with a blanket of love and encouragement from my husband and children, enabling me to do what I do,” she said. 

Read more about Ronit Freeman’s research.