Get our free email newsletter

Engineers Create New Material Inspired by Natural Materials

MIT engineers have created a new material that was inspired by natural materials that feature the advantages of live cells and their ability to respond to their environment. This new material was demonstrated using bacterial cells that were coaxed to produce biofilms that can combine with nonliving materials.

The team programmed the cells to produce different varieties of curli fibers and was able to control the biofilms’ properties to create gold nanowires, conducting biofilms and films sprinkled with quantum dots. They also developed the cells to communicate with each other and the ability to change the biofilm composition over time.

Read more about how this hybrid material could be used in energy applications such as solar cells, self-healing materials or diagnostic sensors. 

Related Articles

Digital Sponsors

Become a Sponsor

Discover new products, review technical whitepapers, read the latest compliance news, trending engineering news, and weekly recall alerts.

Get our email updates

What's New

- From Our Sponsors -

Sign up for the In Compliance Email Newsletter

Discover new products, review technical whitepapers, read the latest compliance news, trending engineering news, and weekly recall alerts.