Engineering Bacterial Live Wires
Just like electronics, living cells use electrons for energy and information transfer. Despite electrons being a common "language" of the living and electronic worlds, living cells cannot speak to our largely technological realm. Cell membranes are largely to blame for this inability to plug cells into our computers: they form a greasy barrier that tightly controls charge balance in a cell. Thus, giving a cell the ability to communicate directly with an electrode would lead to enormous opportunities in the development of new energy conversion techniques, fuel production, biological reporters, or new forms of bioelectronic systems. More>
Foundry Scientists have developed a new microscopy tool that promises to revolutionize nanoscale imaging by combining the advantages of scanning probe microscopy with those of optical spectroscopy in the campanile tip. 
Lab on a chip (LOC) devices - microchip-size systems that can prepare and analyze tiny fluid samples with volumes ranging from a few microliters to sub-nanoliters - are rapidly revolutionizing how laboratory tasks such as diagnosing diseases and investigating forensic evidence are performed. More importantly, LOC applications are transforming chemical analysis systems from large, immobile machines in a "brick-and-mortar" laboratory into tiny, portable instruments that can be put to work directly in the field. 
