Phys.org December 19, 2024 Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) covers an array of technologies for valorizing carbon dioxide (CO2). To date, most mature CCU technology conducted with capture agents operates against the CO2 gradient to desorb CO2 from capture agents, exhibiting high energy penalties and thermal degradation due to the requirement for thermal swings. Researchers in Denmark developed a concept of Bio-Integrated Carbon Capture and Utilization (BICCU), which utilized methanogens for integrated release and conversion of CO2 captured with capture agents. BICCU substituted the energy-intensive desorption with microbial conversion of captured CO2 by the methanogenic CO2-reduction pathway, utilizing green hydrogen […]
Tag Archives: Biotechnology
New ion speed record holds potential for faster battery charging and biosensing
Phys.org November 19, 2024 Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) have better properties than inorganic counterparts for biosensing, soft-robotics, neuromorphic computing, and smart medicine. However, slow ion transport relative to charge transport in these materials is a limiting factor. Researchers at Washington State University demonstrated that hydrophilic molecules local to an interfacial OMIEC nanochannel could accelerate ion transport with ion mobilities surpassing electrophoretic transport by more than an order of magnitude. Ion access to the interfacial channel could be gated through local surface energy. They applied the mechanism in a novel sensing device, which electronically detected and characterized chemical reaction dynamics […]
Enhancing microbe memory to better upcycle excess COâ‚‚
Phys.org August 30, 2024 Microbial cells often lose the multicopy expression plasmids during long-term cultivations. Because of the advantages related to titers, yields, and productivities plasmid stability is essential for industrially relevant biobased processes. Researchers in the UK designed and tested plasmid addiction systems based on the complementation of essential genes. They stabilized a multicopy plasmid by implementing a plasmid addiction tool based on the complementation of mutants lacking RubisCO, which is essential for CO2 fixation. Expressing the mevalonate pathway operon (MvaES) using this addiction system resulted in the production of carbon yields of ∼25%. According to the researchers the […]
Moving from the visible to the infrared: Developing high quality nanocrystals
Phys.org July 9, 2024 Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals based on CdSe have been precisely optimized for photonic applications in the visible spectrum. A team of researchers in the US (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana) developed homogeneous nanocrystals with tunable bandgaps in the infrared spectrum based on HgSe and HgxCd1−xSe alloys derived from CdSe precursors. They found that Ag+ catalyses cation interdiffusion reduced the CdSe–HgSe alloying temperature from 250 °C to 80 °C. Together with ligands that modulated surface cation exchange rates, interdiffusion-enhanced Hg2+ exchange of diverse CdSe nanocrystals proceeded homogeneously and completely. The products retained the size, shape […]
Deep Earth electrical grid mystery solved
Science Daily March 20, 2024 Extracellular electron transfer (EET) via microbial nanowires drives important environmental processes and biotechnological applications for bioenergy, bioremediation, and bioelectronics. However, the process is not clear. An international team of researchers (USA – Yale University, Portugal) showed that Geobacter sulfurreducens periplasmic cytochromes PpcABCDE inject electrons directly into OmcS nanowires by binding transiently with differing efficiencies, with the least-abundant cytochrome (PpcC) showing the highest efficiency. This defined nanowire-charging pathway was evolutionarily conserved in phylogenetically diverse bacteria capable of EET. OmcS heme reduction potentials were within 200 mV of each other, with a midpoint 82 mV-higher than reported previously. […]
Researchers demonstrate control of living cells with electronics
Phys.org March 5, 2024 Microelectronic devices can directly communicate with biology, as electronic information can be transmitted via redox reactions within biological systems. Researchers at the University of Maryland engineered biology’s native redox networks to enable electronic interrogation and control of biological systems at several hierarchical levels: proteins, cells, and cell consortia. Electro-biofabrication facilitated on-device biological component assembly, electrode-actuated redox data transmission and redox-linked synthetic biology allowed programming of enzyme activity and closed-loop electrogenetic control of cellular function. Horseradish peroxidase was assembled onto interdigitated electrodes where electrode-generated hydrogen peroxide controlled its activity. E. coli’s stress response regulon, oxyRS, was rewired […]
Silk nanointerfaces merge biology and electronics
Nanowerk October 24, 2023 Researchers at Tufts University have developed a hybrid biopolymer–semiconductor device by integrating nanoscale silk layers in a well-established class of inorganic field-effect transistors (silk-FETs). The devices offered two distinct modes of operation—either traditional field-effect or electrolyte-gated—enabled by the precisely controlled thickness, morphology, and biochemistry of the integrated silk layers. The different operational modes were selectively accessed by dynamically modulating the free-water content within the nanoscale protein layer from the vapor phase. They illustrated the utility of the hybrid devices in a highly sensitive and ultrafast breath sensor, highlighting the opportunities offered by the integration of nanoscale […]
New laser tweezers allow gentle, efficient manipulation of cells and nanoparticles (w/video)
Nanowerk September 8, 2023 Optical tweezers are used from manufacturing to biotechnology. However, the requirement of refractive index contrast and high laser power results in potential photon and thermal damage to the trapped objects. Optothermal tweezers have been developed to trap particles and biological cells via opto-thermophoresis with much lower laser powers. But the intense laser heating and stringent requirement of the solution environment prevent their use for general biological applications. A team of researchers in the US (UT Austin, UT Dallas) has proposed hypothermal opto-thermophoretic tweezers (HOTTs) to achieve low-power trapping of diverse colloids and biological cells in their […]
Tiny magnetic beads produce an optical signal that could be used to quickly detect pathogens
MIT News August 25, 2023 Researchers at MIT have identified a new optical signature in a widely used class of magnetic beads, which could be used to quickly detect contaminants in a variety of diagnostic tests. They used Dynabeads coated with anti-Salmonella to bind and identify Salmonella enterica. Dynabeads presented signature peaks at 1000 and 1600 1/cm from aliphatic and aromatic C-C stretching of polystyrene, and 1350 1/cm and 1600 1/cm from amide, alpha-helix, and beta-sheet of antibody coatings of the Fe2O3 core, confirming with electron dispersive X-ray imaging. The Raman signature could be measured in dry and liquid samples. […]
Researchers design switch-like proteins inspired by transistors
Phys.org August 23, 2023 In nature, proteins that switch between two conformations in response to environmental stimuli structurally transduce biochemical information in a manner analogous to how transistors control information flow in computing devices. Designing proteins with two distinct but fully structured conformations is a challenge for protein design as it requires sculpting an energy landscape with two distinct minima. A team of researchers in the US (University of Washington, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Milwaukee) described the design of “hinge” proteins that populate one designed state in the absence of ligand and a second designed state in the […]