Austin J Graham, Gina Partipilo, Christopher M Dundas, Ismar E Miniel Mahfoud, Kathleen N Halwachs, Alexis J Holwerda, Trevor R Simmons, Thomas M FitzSimons, Sarah M Coleman, Rebecca Rinehart, Darian Chiu, Avery E Tyndall, Kenneth C Sajbel, Adrianne M Rosales, Benjamin K Keitz
Engineered living materials combine the advantages of biological and synthetic systems by leveraging genetic and metabolic programming to control material-wide properties. Here, we demonstrate that extracellular electron transfer (EET), a microbial respiration process, can serve as a tunable bridge between live cell metabolism and synthetic material properties. In this system, EET flux from Shewanella oneidensis to a copper catalyst controls hydrogel cross-linking via two distinct chemistries to form living synthetic polymer networks...
May 23, 2024: Nature Chemical Biology