Bacteria Can Be Engineered To Make Small-Scale Electronics

Engineered Bacteria Can Manufacture Nano-Electronics

Nanowires could be used in small powerful devices

Coby McDonald | July 14, 2016

Give a man tryptophan, and he falls asleep (supposedly). Give tryptophan to genetically modified bacteria created by University of Massachusetts-Amherst biologists, and they produce tiny conductive wires that may one day be used in electronics. Call it different strokes for different folks.
Fifteen years ago, the scientists noticed that Geobacter, a bacterium commonly found in soil, creates protein microfilaments that help it grown on iron minerals, and those filaments conduct electricity, albeit at low levels.

Source: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2011/guptas/observation.html

<more at http://www.popsci.com/conductive-nanowires; related articles and links: https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/%E2%80%98green%E2%80%99-electronic-materials-produced (‘Green’ Electronic Materials Produced with Synthetic Biology. July 14, 2016) and http://www.google.com/patents/US8846890 (Microbial nanowires . US 8846890 B2. Publication date: September 30, 2014)>