IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-03161-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Painting with light-powered bacteria

Author

Listed:
  • Jochen Arlt

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Vincent A. Martinez

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Angela Dawson

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Teuta Pilizota

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Wilson C. K. Poon

    (The University of Edinburgh)

Abstract

Self-assembly is a promising route for micro- and nano-fabrication with potential to revolutionise many areas of technology, including personalised medicine. Here we demonstrate that external control of the swimming speed of microswimmers can be used to self assemble reconfigurable designer structures in situ. We implement such ‘smart templated active self assembly’ in a fluid environment by using spatially patterned light fields to control photon-powered strains of motile Escherichia coli bacteria. The physics and biology governing the sharpness and formation speed of patterns is investigated using a bespoke strain designed to respond quickly to changes in light intensity. Our protocol provides a distinct paradigm for self-assembly of structures on the 10 μm to mm scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Jochen Arlt & Vincent A. Martinez & Angela Dawson & Teuta Pilizota & Wilson C. K. Poon, 2018. "Painting with light-powered bacteria," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03161-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03161-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03161-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-03161-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guevara-Valadez, Carlos Antonio & Marathe, Rahul & Gomez-Solano, Juan Ruben, 2023. "A Brownian cyclic engine operating in a viscoelastic active suspension," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 609(C).
    2. Antoine Aubret & Quentin Martinet & Jeremie Palacci, 2021. "Metamachines of pluripotent colloids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Alberto Dinelli & Jérémy O’Byrne & Agnese Curatolo & Yongfeng Zhao & Peter Sollich & Julien Tailleur, 2023. "Non-reciprocity across scales in active mixtures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Helena Massana-Cid & Claudio Maggi & Giacomo Frangipane & Roberto Di Leonardo, 2022. "Rectification and confinement of photokinetic bacteria in an optical feedback loop," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Nicola Pellicciotta & Matteo Paoluzzi & Dario Buonomo & Giacomo Frangipane & Luca Angelani & Roberto Di Leonardo, 2023. "Colloidal transport by light induced gradients of active pressure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03161-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.