Journal Article

Tunable light-focusing behavior of engineered bacterial microlenses with controllable shapes

Beaulieu, Michelle M, Wilson, Dylan F, Acarturk, B Cansu, Sage, Kathren P, Sidor, Lynn M, Schmidt, Greg R, Abbondanzieri, Elio A, Jenen, Emerson, Meyer, Anne S, Srubar, 3rd, Wil V

2025

Overview

Recently, engineered bacterial cells have been shown to behave as optically-active photonic devices comparable to industrially fabricated microlenses . Bacterial cells can be encapsulated within a layer of polysilicate through surface display of the sea sponge enzyme silicatein, which mineralizes a polysilicate coating. The addition of this polysilicate layer significantly enhances the ability of these cells to guide, scatter, and focus light . However, this previous technique was limited to creating rod-shaped microlenses, which are not ideal for all applications. Here we expand upon this technology by engineering the shapes of silicatein-displaying bacterial cells. Through the overexpression of the genes and or through the use of the drug A22 , we are able to alter cells from their characteristic rod-like shape to either spherical or filamentous forms. Round cells encapsulated in polysilicate were shown to scatter light more intensely and symmetrically than rod-shaped cells, while encapsulated filamentous cells were shown to guide light similarly to an optical fiber. This control over the size and shape of optically-active cells is a major advancement towards developing bio-engineered photonic devices such as nanophotonic waveguides, spherical microlens arrays, and advanced biosensors.

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Preprints