ABSTRACT
Biomolecular electronics examines the use of biological molecules or biomimetic systems in electronic or photonic devices. The principal rationale for using biomolecular electronics is that natural selection already evolved materials with key properties desired for device applications. Organisms are required to continuously optimize the organic and inorganic components that are critical to their biological or survival functions. The assumption that biology cannot provide materials with sufficient stability or efficiency to compete with semiconductor technology is shortsighted. Many organisms generated materials capable of withstanding high thermal or photochemical stress while maintaining high efficiency, and the search for such materials in extremophiles (organisms that survive optimally under extreme variations in temperature, ion concentration, lack of oxygen, etc.) often yields successful results. Recent advances in molecular biology provide efficient methods of improving upon native materials through genetic engineering and directed evolution. Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is a protein isolated from a halophilic organism that can be manipulated by genetic methods. The protein is synthesized by an archae extremophile to provide a source of photosynthetic energy for a salt-marsh bacterium that must survive in a
hot, high solar flux environment.
