Anchor
MIT builds working transistors out of living bacteria
New CapabilitiesBacterial circuits printed on growth plates can add numbers and route signals, pointing toward self-defending crops
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Overview
Updated 1 hour agoMIT researchers have built working transistors out of living bacteria. The cells are printed onto growth plates in patterns and wired together with chemical signals, forming circuits that add numbers, route signals, and perform logic operations.
Each calculation takes about eight hours, and the circuits stop working after about three days. But the bacteria naturally colonize plant surfaces, so the team envisions coating roots and leaves with living computers that detect drought, pests, or other threats and trigger defenses on their own.
Why it matters
Bacterial circuits could let crops detect threats and defend themselves without human intervention.
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Key Indicators
24
Bacterial colonies in largest circuit
The full adder circuit wires 24 colonies together.
5
Cell types used
Two transistors and three relay strains form the building blocks.
8 hours
Time per calculation
Each logic operation takes about eight hours.
3 days
Maximum circuit operation
Signal buildup and crosstalk limit operation to about three days.
Related Media
Living circuit boards built by printing bacterial transistors | Nature Chemical Biology
MIT engineers connect bacteria to create living transistors | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Timeline
August 2026 September 2026
3 events
Latest: 3 days ago
-
Bacterial transistor story spreads
Latest MediaThe ScienceDaily report circulates as a science news alert, drawing wider attention.
-
ScienceDaily covers bacterial circuits
MediaScienceDaily publishes a report on the bacterial transistor research.
-
MIT unveils bacterial transistors
ResearchMIT announces the research; paper published in Nature Chemical Biology.
Historical Context
3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.
December 1947
First transistor (1947)
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Labs demonstrated the first point-contact transistor. It was crude, slow, and fragile compared to today's chips, but it proved that solid-state amplification was possible.
Then
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes in radios and early computers over the following decade.
Now
The transistor became the foundation of all modern electronics, with billions now fabricated on single chips.
Why this matters now
Today's bacterial transistors are similarly crude and slow, but they prove that biological computation is possible, just as the first transistor proved solid-state electronics.
September 1958
First integrated circuit (1958)
Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments demonstrated the first integrated circuit, wiring multiple transistors onto a single piece of semiconductor material. It eliminated the need to connect discrete components by hand.
Then
Integrated circuits enabled smaller, cheaper, more reliable electronics.
Now
The integrated circuit made modern computing possible, from smartphones to data centers.
Why this matters now
The bacterial circuits are wired together by printing colonies in patterns, much like an integrated circuit routes signals between components, but using chemical signals instead of electrons.
November 1994
Adleman's DNA computing (1994)
Computer scientist Leonard Adleman used strands of DNA to solve a seven-city Hamiltonian path problem, the first demonstration that biological molecules could perform computation. The experiment took days and required lab work.
Then
The experiment showed DNA could compute, sparking a wave of research into biological computing.
Now
DNA computing remained impractical for general use but inspired ongoing work in molecular computation.
Why this matters now
Like Adleman's experiment, the bacterial transistors show biological systems can compute, but slowly and with significant limitations.