Physics Colloquium: Creating Bacterial Microlenses and Other (Living) Material
Physics Colloquium
Creating Bacterial Microlenses and Other (Living) Material
Dr. Anne Meyer
Associate Professor, Dept. of Biology
University of Rochester
Event Details: Microlenses are a cutting-edge technology for focusing, imaging, detecting, and coupling light in advanced optical applications. However, current fabrication methods require expensive, labor-intensive manufacturing techniques that often require and/or produce toxic chemicals. We have employed a synthetic biology approach to develop biological microlenses by engineering bacteria that display the silica biomineralization enzyme silicatein found in aquatic sea sponges. These bacteria cells can polymerize a layer of polysilicate surrounding themselves and can both capture and focus bright beams of light. Our bacterial microlenses are sustainably self-assembled and can lead to wide-ranging applications in the optical and biomedical industries.
Bio: Dr. Anne S. Meyer is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. Dr. Meyer received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University. She was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Meyer served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bionanoscience at TU Delft in The Netherlands, prior to moving her research group to the University of Rochester in 2018. Her research focuses on using tools of synthetic biology to engineer novel functions into microorganisms, with a focus on the production of improved, tunable biomaterials and the development of new tools for 3D patterning of bacteria.
Intended Audience: All are Welcome!
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