The Steady March toward Biomimetic Nanoelectronics.

Abstract

Steady progress is being made in unveiling nature's long-range charge transport mechanisms in redox proteins and in the development of versatile self-assembling scaffolds and <i>de novo</i> proteins by design-two separate fields that soon may intersect to yield the first artificial bioelectronic wires. Here, we summarize compelling developments in these areas that put a spotlight on the prospect of their convergence, featuring, in particular, work by Dai <i>et al.</i> in this issue of <i>ACS Nano</i> that illustrates success in intentional design with nuanced control, binding multiple c-type hemes into a specific ordered array bearing the essential hallmarks of heme chains in bacterial multiheme cytochromes.