Turning Seafloor Microbes into Green Electronics

Before digital electronics ever existed, the ocean already hosted multicore cables in the form of cable bacteria. These filamentous microorganisms are about twenty times thinner than a human hair yet can stretch for centimetres, acting as living electric wires in benthic sediments.

Our new publication, “Pullulan Coating Preserves High Conductivity in Cable Bacteria Wires,” shows how a thin polysaccharide layer (pullulan) boosts the stability of these biological conductors by ten‑fold and explores a link between cable bacteria conductivity and ambient humidity.

This research was carried out by Anastasia Gerzhik during her PhD, funded by the Pathfinder project PRINGLE 101046719, and was made possible through productive cooperation within the European consortium—particularly with the University of Antwerp: Dr. Dmitrii Pankratov, Silvia Hidalgo Martinez, and Prof. Dr. Filip J. R. Meysman. We thank the Helmholtz Nano Facility for providing the cleanroom environment for fabrication of the microelectrodes, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Offenhäusser, and Dr. Dirk Mayer for their relentless supervision and research work coordination.

Publication: Anastasia Gerzhik, Dmitrii Pankratov, Silvia Hidalgo Martinez, Filip J. R. Meysman, Andreas Offenhäusser, Dirk Mayer. Pullulan Coating Preserves High Conductivity in Cable Bacteria Wires. ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 2026. DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.5c02310

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