Systems and methods for forming biological nanowires and applications thereof
AssigneeYale University
InventorsNikhil Malvankar, Sibel Ebru Yalcin
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Abstract
A nanowire may be isolated from a bacterium, wherein the nanowire includes c-type heme subunits or pili proteins and is capable of establishing an electrical connection with an insoluble electron acceptor. The c-type heme subunits may comprise OmcS or OmcZ cytochrome subunits or any combination thereof. The pili proteins may have an amino acid sequence with at least one residue modified, from a wild-type strain of the microorganism, to include an aromatic amino acid. The nanowire may have metallic or semiconducting conductive properties, and may be integrated into an electronic device.
Claims18
A nanowire obtained by a method comprising:
- culturing bacteria capable of expressing a protein comprising c-type cytochrome subunits arranged in a helical structure in a first cell culture medium comprising a soluble electron acceptor in a microbial electrolysis cell, wherein heme groups of the c-type cytochrome subunits are arranged to form a heme backbone of the protein, and the heme backbone comprises a plurality of stacked heme pairs;
- applying a voltage against a reference electrode of the microbial electrolysis cell;
- after a desired bacteria concentration is attained in the first cell culture medium, exchanging the first cell culture medium with a second cell culture medium lacking a soluble electron acceptor;
- removing a biofilm formed by the bacteria in the second cell culture medium and on an anode of the microbial electrolysis cell;
- and
- separating the nanowire from the biofilm by one or more of centrifugation, blending, and/or filtering the second cell culture medium to isolate the protein expressed by the bacteria.
A method of preparing a nanowire, comprising:
- culturing, in a first cell culture medium comprising an electron acceptor, a bacterium capable of expressing a protein comprising c-type cytochrome subunits arranged in a helical structure, wherein heme groups of the c-type cytochrome subunits are arranged to form a heme backbone of the protein, in a microbial electrolysis cell;
- applying a voltage against a reference electrode of the microbial electrolysis cell;
- after a desired bacteria concentration is attained in the first cell culture medium, exchanging the first cell culture medium with a second cell culture medium lacking a soluble electron acceptor;
- removing a biofilm formed by the bacterium in the second cell culture medium and on an anode of the microbial electrolysis cell;
- and
- isolating the nanowire from the biofilm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.