Engineering Bacterial Live Wires
February 28, 2013
Just like electronics, living cells use electrons for energy and information transfer. Despite electrons being a common “language” of the living and electronic worlds, living cells cannot speak to our largely technological realm. Giving a cell the ability to communicate directly with an electrode would lead to enormous opportunities in the development of new energy conversion techniques, fuel production, biological reporters, or new forms of bioelectronic systems. Building off previous research, a group led by Berkeley Lab’s Caroline Ajo-Franklin has now demonstrated that engineered E. coli strains can generate measurable current at an anode.
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