About this ebook
The goal of this digital primer is to introduce the biological processes involved in microbial extracellular electron transfer (EET) within the context of their characterization and deployment. The authors review key learnings about electron transfer-competent microbes, describe approaches for their study and characterization, and discuss approaches based on these fundamental learnings to engineer these microbes for biotechnology applications.
The material in this digital primer is organized into six chapters. CHAPTER 1 introduces electron transfer in biomolecules, which serves as the foundation for electron transfer in microbes. CHAPTER 2 describes key analytical techniques and approaches for studying extracellular electron transfer in microbes, with an emphasis on the specific information that can be obtained with each technique. CHAPTERS 3 and 4 focus on what is known about extracellular electron transfer in the most well-characterized of these microbes, Shewanella oneidensis and Geobacter sulfurreducens, respectively. The authors conclude with non-model microbes capable of performing these processes (CHAPTER 5) and provide an outlook on the field (CHAPTER 6).
This primer serves as a resource to bridge discussions among chemists, microbiologists, biophysicists, and engineers, necessary for understanding the fundamental biological processes in these microbes. Additionally, increased interactions between the scientific and engineering communities, facilitated by primers such as this one, are expected to enable the development and translation of technologies based on these biological systems. This primer provides a cross-disciplinary common language to facilitate collaborations and new discussions.
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About the author
Annette R. Rowe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Genetics and Immunology, and the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University. Her research group investigates the physiology of electrochemically active microorganisms by using a combination of electrochemical, microbiological, and genetic approaches. She received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Cornell University from the lab of Prof. Ruth Richardson in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She started research on cathodic microbes as a Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) Postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ken Nealson, and then as NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral Fellow co-advised by Moh El-Naggar and Jan Amend at the University of Southern California. She also received a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science short-term postdoctoral fellowship to work with Akihiro Okamoto in Chemical Engineering at the University of Tokyo. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and a DOE Early Career Researcher award. As a scientist with broad interdisciplinary training, she is passionate about including diverse perspectives and backgrounds in research and using understanding of the amazing microbial world to help solve critical problems in energy and environmental quality.
Ariel L. Furst is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her lab combines biological, chemical, and materials engineering to solve challenges in human health and environmental sustainability. She completed her Ph.D. in the lab of Prof. Jacqueline K. Barton at the California Institute of Technology developing new cancer diagnostic strategies based on DNA charge transport. She was an A. O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Matthew Francis at UC, Berkeley developing sensors to monitor environmental pollutants. She is the recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and the Sloan Fellowship. She is the cofounder of three startups and is passionate about entrepreneurship, in addition to STEM outreach and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.
