Robotic germ equipped with graphene quantum dots

March 25, 2015

These bacteria are NERDS. (Credit: Thinkstock)

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com @BednarChuck

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have created a robotic germ by placing a humidity sensor on a bacterial spore. This is what they are calling the first-ever example of nanoscale bioengineering involving these minute, one-celled reproductive units.

Here, the spore reacts actively to humidity; and the reaction is translated to an electronic response from the interfaced graphene quantum dots. (Credit: Berry Research Laboratory at UIC)

The research is the latest entry in the first generation of bio-electromechanical devices designed to combine living organism with nonliving technology to conduct research and solve a variety of different problems by using miniature machines too small for the naked eye to see.

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The UIC researchers, who described their work in a recent issue of the journal Scientific Reports, believe that their discovery could ultimately lead to the evolution of next-generation bio-derived microarchitectures, probes for cellular/biochemical processes, biomicrorobotic-mechanisms, and membranes for micromechanical actuation.

NERD alert!

Their nanobot, the Nano-Electro-Robotic Device (NERD), and lead investigator/UIC associate professor of chemical engineering Vikas Berry explained that he and his colleagues created it by taking a spore from a bacterium, placing graphene quantum dots on its surface and attaching two electrodes on either side of the spore. Then we changed the humidity around the spore.

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Robotic germ equipped with graphene quantum dots