Also: M13 bacteriophage, phage display materials, virus batteries
Angela Belcher's group and others engineered harmless viruses to grab and organize inorganic materials, building battery electrodes and even generating electricity.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Lee and colleagues showed films of M13 phage produce electricity when pressed.
Built / tested: phage generator
As reported in: Lee, Zhang, Zueger et al. (2012). Virus-based piezoelectric energy generation. Nature Nanotechnology. doi:10.1038/nnano.2012.69
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Nam and colleagues engineered M13 viruses to grow cobalt oxide nanowires for lithium-ion battery electrodes.
Built / tested: virus-templated electrode
As reported in: Nam, Kim, Yoo et al. (2006). Virus-Enabled Synthesis and Assembly of Nanowires for Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1122716
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Lee and colleagues used multiple virus genes to build both electrode materials for higher-power lithium-ion batteries.
Built / tested: virus-enabled battery
As reported in: Lee, Yi, Kim et al. (2009). Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1171541
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Whaley and colleagues used phage display to find peptides that selectively bind semiconductor surfaces.
As reported in: Whaley, English, Hu et al. (2000). Selection of peptides with semiconductor binding specificity for directed nanocrystal assembly. Nature. doi:10.1038/35015043
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