Using synthetic biology to engineer living electronics across scales

Microbes have evolved genetically encoded machinery enabling them to utilize the abundant redox‐active molecules and minerals available on Earth. Recently, the machinery enabling these redox reactions have been leveraged for interfacing cells and biomolecules with electrical circuits for biotechnological applications in energy harvesting, chemical production, and environmental biosensing. Here, I will present on efforts to use protein engineering and synthetic biology to control biological electron transfer across a range of spatial scales from metabolic pathways to multicellular communities and biohybrid interfaces between cells and electrodes. These efforts are providing new tools for constructing living electronic sensors and living electronic materials.