Nutrition-driven assembly of colloidal nanoparticles: Growing fungi assemble gold nanoparticles as microwires

The use of a living fungus to 'actively' assemble presynthesized gold nano-particles over its hyphae, resulting in conducting microstructures (see figure), is reported. This physiologically (nutrition) driven process of colloidal self-organization avoids the need for sophisticated DNA/protein chemistry for facilitating interfacing with biological surfaces. The obtained gold-laden microstructures can be modified into flat ribbonlike or tubular morphologies by simple post-formation processing.