Biomolecular Materials Group

The next generation of batteries could be made with the help of an unusual manufacturing partner—a virus that infects bacteria. Using an environmentally benign process, scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology coaxed a genetically engineered virus into building and wiring the cathode of a lithium-ion battery.

Read on: “Virus Power“

Scientists at MIT have developed a new, more environmentally friendly way to make lithium batteries. Their approach employs an unusual component: genetically engineered viruses.  These new batteries have the same energy capacity as other lithium batteries of the same size and show potential to develop even more powerful batteries.  MIT researcher Angela Belcher, who trained in biology, inorganic chemistry and electrical engineering, has long been interested in using natural biological processes to build better technology.

Read on and listen at:  “Hidden Ingredient In New, Greener Battery: A Virus“

Viruses have been used to help build batteries that may one day power cars and all types of electronic devices. The speed and relatively cheap cost of manufacturing virus batteries could prove attractive to industry. Professor Angela Belcher, who led the research team, said: “Our material is powerful enough to be able to be used in a car battery.”

Read on: “Virus battery could ‘power cars’“

For the first time, MIT researchers have shown they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery.

Read on: “New virus-built battery could power cars, electronic devices“

Angela Belcher delivered the keynote address to a packed ballroom.  She sketched out potential nanotechnology solutions to global challenges in energy, health care, and the environment.

Read on:  “Chemists Meet in Utah“

Prof. Angela Belcher named among 100 agents of change in the world by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Read on: “The 100 People Who Are Changing America“

The way Angela Belcher sees it, nature could do a lot more, if only given the opportunity.

Read on:  “Turning on Virus Power”

Forget 9-volts, AAs, AAAs or D batteries: The energy for tomorrow’s miniature electronic devices could come from tiny microbatteries about half the size of a human cell and built with viruses.

Read on:  “MIT engineers work toward cell-sized batteries”

When 40-year-old materials chemist Angela Belcher was a child, she wanted to be an inventor. “I would try to build things out of scrap material that we had in the garage,” she says. To her disappointment, everything she made had already been invented. Then, in college, she “fell in love with large molecules” and found a whole new way to build things.

Read on:  “3 People Who Are Pushing the Edge of Science“

MIT’s Angela Belcher, a former winner of PopSci’s Brillant 10, is developing new materials that could lead to gadgets that mend their cracks when dropped on the floor, and won’t die if exposed to water.

Read on:  “From Abalone to Self-healing gadgets”