Invited for this month's cover is the collaborative work among Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Univ. degli Studi di Milano, Univ. of California Irvine, Univ. of New Mexico, CNRS Toulouse. Technische Univ. Braunschweig, Aquacycl LLC, J. Craig Venter Institute, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research. The image shows a sketch of a microbial fuel cell and a target indicating the need of developing common standards for the field of microbial electrochemical technologies. The Full Paper itself is available at 10.1002/cssc.202100294.
A biofuel cell is an electrochemical device using exoelectrogen or biocatalysts to transfer electrons from redox reactions to the electrodes. While wild-type microbes and natural enzymes are often employed as exoelectrogen and biocatalysts, genetically engineered or modified organisms have been developed to enhance exoelectrogen activity. Here, we demonstrated a redox-enzyme integrated microbial fuel cell (REI-MFC) design based on an exoelectrogen-enhancing strategy that reinforces the electrogenic activity of MR1 by displaying an extra redox enzyme on the cell surface.
Food preservatives are essential for maintaining the safety and quality of food products. Nisin and natamycin are natural food preservatives extensively used in the food industry to enhance various food products' shelf life and safety. Nisin, a polycyclic antibacterial peptide, is effective against a broad spectrum of Gram-positive bacteria, including foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms.
Microbial electrochemical technologies (MET) can remove a variety of organic and inorganic pollutants from contaminated groundwater. However, despite significant laboratory-scale successes over the past decade, field-scale applications remain limited. We hypothesize that enhancing the electrochemical conductivity of the soil surrounding electrodes could be a groundbreaking and cost-effective alternative to deploying numerous high-surface-area electrodes in short distances.
Uranium is the primary fuel for nuclear energy, critical for sustainable, carbon-neutral energy transitions. However, limited terrestrial resources and environmental risks from uranium contamination require innovative immobilization and recovery solutions. In this work, we present a novel uranium recovery method using programmable electroactive living materials (ELMs).
As a result of drug resistance, many antimicrobial medicines become ineffective, making the infections more difficult to treat. Therefore, there is a need to develop new compounds with antibacterial activity. This role may be played, for example, by metal complexes with carboxylic acids.
