Sandia work shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures

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Cell-directed assembly lead author Helen Baca selected the Materials Research Societys Gold Medal graduate student in 2005 and UNM Outstanding Graduate Student for 2006 looks over the letters CDA standing for cell-directed assembly. The letters self ...
Cell-directed assembly — lead author Helen Baca, selected the Materials Research Society’s Gold Medal graduate student in 2005 and UNM Outstanding Graduate Student for 2006, looks over the letters “CDA” standing for cell-directed assembly. The letters’ self-assembled materials were prepared by UNM grad student Eric Carnes, who for the picture stained an estimated 10 to the 10th yeast cells with nucleic acid. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures. The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, NASA and US Air Force) to test whether nanostructures whose formations were directed by yeast and other single cells can create more secure homes for their occupants — even in the vacuum and radiation of outer space — than those created by more standard chemical procedures.


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