ABSTRACT
Microbe is extremely abundant in nature, and its size has a very wide coverage from nano- to micro-scale making it suitable to be processed at multi-scale level as natural "building blocks" and "chassis cells". Biofabrication based on microbes is an artificial manipulation on microbes to assemble functional materials and devices by using the specific structures and various biological functions of microbes. In the meantime, the novel strategies of biofarication enables us to study the behavioral details of microbes, which will provide new platforms for uncovering the unsolved basic scientific problems of microbes. In this paper, we reviewed the frontier and progress in biofabrication from nano- and micro-scale in microbes that were manipulated as structured "building blocks" or functional "micro/nano robots".
Subject(s)
Bacteria , Metabolism , Biomimetics , Methods , Biotechnology , Microfluidic Analytical Techniques , Methods , Nanotechnology , Viruses , MetabolismABSTRACT
Microorganisms in nature have rich variety, whose sizes are from nano scale to micro scale. Therefore, microbes can be used as natural "building blocks" in nano/micro multi-level fabrication processes. At present, most of the bio-manufacturing methods do not apply to direct control of living microbes. Their microbiological global functions and superiorities are not available. In this paper, two novel nano/micro bio-fabrication approaches, micro-fluidic control method and magnetic control method have been established. The living microbes could be manipulated to form micro-scaled patterns or to move orientedly. By these approaches, living microbes are taken as nano/micro robots. We could employ their specific biological functions and regulate their controllable self-assembly, which is expected to design and create a series of new special functional materials and devices.