Mini ‘solar panels’ help yeast shine at churning out drug ingredients
Covering microbes with light-harvesting semiconductors boosted shikimic acid production
Bionic microbes outfitted with tiny semiconductor components can generate useful chemicals more efficiently than normal cells.
Microorganisms like fungi are commonly used in biomanufacturing to convert simple carbon-based molecules, such as sugar, into a wide range of chemical ingredients for pharmaceuticals and other products. But much of a microbe’s carbon intake typically gets used to power the creature itself, cutting the amount available to form desired chemicals.
In the new setup, described in the Nov. 16 Science, microbial cells are coated in semiconductor nanoparticles that absorb and transfer energy from sunlight to the cell, similar to the way rooftop solar panels supply energy to a house. That process allows the cell to funnel carbon it would normally use as a fuel toward its chemical output instead.