Synthetic cells used to bioengineer new forms of silica
Friday, June 8, 2012 - 05:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) -- Scientists do not fully understand how nature uses proteins to develop new materials and minerals, but learning more about the natural processes could lead to bioengineering methods such as the biological synthesis of solid-state materials for electronics applications. Now researchers in the US have designed a synthetic biological platform to facilitate the study of these processes and genetically engineer new materials.