Seminar - Using synthetic biology to understand and control living electronics across scales

Biology leverages a range of electrical phenomena to extract and store energy, control molecular reactions, and enable multicellular communication. Microbes, in particular, have evolved genetically encoded machinery enabling them to utilize the abundant redox‐active molecules and minerals available on Earth, which in turn drive global‐scale biogeochemical cycles. Recently, the microbial machinery enabling these redox reactions have been leveraged for interfacing cells and biomolecules with electrical circuits for biotechnological applications in energy harvesting, chemical production, and environmental biosensing. Here, I will present on efforts to use protein engineering and synthetic biology approaches to control biological electron transfer across a range of spatial scales from intracellular metabolic pathways to intercellular communities and biohybrid interfaces between cells and electronic devices. These efforts are providing new tools for constructing living electronic sensors and living electronic materials.
 

This is a hybrid seminar which you can attend in person in LSC3 (Life Sciences Institute, UBC Vancouver Campus) or on Zoom. If you are joining on zoom, please use the meeting ID and passcode below: 

Meeting ID: 91037 579420 

Passcode: 579420