Mind the Gap! Bridging Microbes and Electrodes through NanoBioengineering

Ongoing discoveries with exoelectrogenic microbes have inspired the latest developments in whole-cell energy devices. This devicees rely on the effective interfacing of living microbes and electrodes for bioelectricity generation. A combination of materials engineering and biological engineering has thusfar contributed to record-breaking device performances in microbial fuel cells and living photovoltaics. These advancements have largely focused on the expression of protein-based electron conduits in bionengineered microbes [1], conductive polymer-based electrodes [2-3] and nanobionics [4] for enhancing device performances.

This presentation focuses on complementary approaches that exploit biosynthetic material characteristics. We explore the development of biosynthesizable electrodes based on biological polymers [5-6] as well as soluble biological mediators [7]. This presentation also examines the development andoptimization of solid-state electrode constructs with enhanced charge-extraction capabilities. Finally, we discuss recent techniques inspired by synthetic electronic laboratories. These advancements establish new benchmarking techniques fore electrobiological characterization that have been lacking in the field.