About This Project
Proteins offer the promise of regenerative forms of power for devices. Current power sources fail to disassemble, recycle or degrade. We build on research using protein nanowires harvested from Geobacter sulfurreducens to make energy harvesting cells. We are scaling the lab processes to grow these proteins + experiment with new biodevices. Our aim is also to make these protein accessible so we and the biocurious can engage with cutting-edge bioelectronics.
What is the context of this research?
The article “The Mud is Electric” jumpstarted our journey. It highlights how bacteria Geobacter sulfurreducens creates proteins that generate electricity.
We want to harness and scale this capacity in a community lab setting, making these proteins accessible to citizen scientists and fostering bioelectronic innovation outside traditional academic environments.
We are crafting a technology that uses widely available materials to birth a new generation of electronics. This approach aligns perfectly with the community biology ethos of democratizing scientific tools and knowledge.
What is the significance of this project?
As the world increasingly adopts electronics, the demand for critical minerals is skyrocketing. This leads to increased mining activities and environmental degradation and e-waste.
Our approach is to re-imagine this paradigm. What if we could cultivate our electronics? We are growing bacteria that naturally produce electrical proteins. This breakthrough serves as a platform technology applicable to both energy production and electronics.
We are experimenting with embedding these protein in algae-based biomaterials to make growable, compostable devices. But we know others will think of other incredible applications too. We want to scale the growing of these proteins so we can share them and empower other to pursue divergent areas of research.
What are the goals of the project?
Short-term goals (grant period):
- Optimize protein nanowire production in our community lab setting
- Create an open-source toolkit for other community labs to replicate our work
- Host workshops and open lab days to engage the local community in our research
Medium-term goals (2 years):
We ourselves are developing devices that will be growable and compostable. We aim to enable bio-communities to use these proteins to tinker with their own bio-electronic applications that are non-toxic and renewable. This will foster a network of community labs collaborating on bioelectronics + sharing results.
Long-term vision (20 years):
We see people using phones made of compostable materials, right down to the electronics inside, and burying them ritually in the soil at the end of use.
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