Microbes as Structural Templates in Biofabrication: Study of Surface Chemistry and Applications

• Published in: ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering Vol. 5; no. 12; pp. 11163 - 11175
• Main Authors: Ullah, Muhammad Wajid, Shi, Zhijun, Shi, Xudian, Zeng, Di, Li, Sixiang, Yang, Guang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 04.12.2017
• Subjects: algae; bacteria; biofabrication; biomimetics; cell walls; engineering; eukaryotic cells; fungi; green chemistry; moieties; prokaryotic cells; viruses; Surface properties; Biotemplates; Biofabrication; Bionanomaterials; Microbes
• ISSN: 2168-0485; 2168-0485
• DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02765

Biofabrication, referring to engineering of complex constructs with desired features using living biotemplates, is a new fascinating technology. Microbes as exceptional templates provide a biomimetic approach to obtain amazingly ordered nano-, micro-, and meso-structured materials owing to diversity in their sizes and shapes, presence of a variety of chemical functional groups on their surfaces, and intrinsically porous structure of their cell walls. As biotemplates, microbes can be utilized for synthesis of novel bionanomaterials, microdevices, and micro/nanorobots, etc. by using various bottom-up approaches. Here, we summarized the recent advancements in biofabrication based on microbes, from nano to mesoscopic size, from viruses to true-living microbes, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, and from unicellular to multicellular microbes. It reviews the role of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and algae as structural templates in biofabrication of various bionanomaterials for diverse applications and provides new insights for future development of fabrication technology by using these microbes.