News Release 05-044
Building a Better Nanoworld with Microbes
Live bacteria are directed down a channel and trapped by mild electric currents.
March 17, 2005
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
In a new approach to assembling nanotechnology's atomic-scale machines, a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has successfully crafted tiny bio-electronic circuits out of live bacteria. Among the potential applications is a new class of sensors that could rapidly detect dangerous biological agents such as anthrax.
Carried out in the laboratories of UW chemist Robert Hamers, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the work was reported today at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. The group's formal paper was also posted today in the online edition of the journal Nano Letters; a printed version is scheduled to appear in the journal's April issue.
For more information, see the UW-Madison news release.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Terry Devitt, UW-Madison, (608) 262-8282, email: trdevitt@wisc.edu
M. Mitchell Waldrop, NSF, (703) 292-7752, email: mwaldrop@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
Robert J. Hamers, UW-Madison, (608) 262-6371, email: hamers@chem.wisc.edu
Co-Investigators
Joseph D. Beck, UW-Madison, (608) 262-9081, email: jdbeck@wisc.edu
Related Websites
Hamers Research Group: http://hamers.chem.wisc.edu/
Movies of bacteria being directed down a channel: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/hamers.html
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