Living Bacterial Materials Integrated with Photocurable Matrices: Viability, Containment, Transport and Function

Living bacterial materials combine a non-living matrix with metabolically active microorganisms. In photocurable systems the central engineering problem is not simply whether bacteria survive cure, but whether viability, containment, nutrient and analyte transport, mechanical integrity and programmed function remain compatible over the intended service interval. This review separates those requirements, treats cure exposure and matrix crosslinking as process variables that can alter cell state, and defines a qualification framework in which escape, overgrowth and functional drift are measured alongside viability. The discussion is bounded to bacteria integrated with photocurable or crosslinkable matrices and does not treat biosensing calibration in depth, which is owned by ER-436. ER-431.