A recent discovery reveals that bacteria are capable of generating electrical currents and guiding them over long distances. This newly discovered process of long-distance microbial electricity is fundamentally different from neural conduction or other known conduction mechanisms in biology. The process also dramatically influences the way that natural ecosystems function.

Today the Danish National Research Foundation has announced that it will fund a new Centre of Excellence at Aarhus University to perform state-of-the-art research into this newly discovered “electrical biosphere”. This Center for Electromicrobiology (CEM) will receive DKK 56 million in research funding for the next six years. 

Multidisciplinary research in cable bacteria

The Center for Electromicrobiology is headed by Professor Lars Peter-Nielsen (Dept. of Bioscience, Aarhus University) and involves a core team of five Aarhus University researchers, who will perform multi-disciplinary research in structural molecular biology, bioelectrochemistry, and microbial physiology. AIAS Fellow Prof. Filip Meysman is a member of the core team. His prime focus within the Centre of Excellence will be to construct advanced computer models of the electron transport inside the “electrical microbes”.

Overall, the CEM will unravel how electrons are transported inside bacteria, how micro-organisms are able to exploit this electron transport, and how electrons are exchanged with the environment. This research could lead to entirely new conducting materials and new breakthroughs in bio-electrical applications.

Read more about the centre and see who is part of the centre (in Danish)

Read more in the Danish National Research Foundation's press release

Contact

Filip Meysman, Prof., AIAS Fellow
fmeysman@aias.au.dk
Phone: +4587153562   

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies
Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B
Building 1630, 119
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark