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Most of the photochemical activity of bacterial photosynthetic apparatuses occurs in the reaction center, a transmembrane protein complex which converts photons into chargeseparated states across the membrane with a quantum yield close to unity, fuelling the metabolism of the organism. Integrating the reaction center from the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides onto electroactive surfaces, it is possible to technologically exploit the efficiency of this natural machinery to generate a photovoltage upon Near Infra-Red illumination, which can be used in electronic architectures working in the electrolytic environment such as electrolyte-gated organic transistors and bio-photonic power cells. Here, photovoltage generation in reaction center-based bio-hybrid architectures is investigated by means of chronopotentiometry, isolating the contribution of the functionalisation layers and defining novel surface functionalization strategies for photovoltage tuning.

Synthetic biology has a huge potential to produce the next generation of advanced materials by accessing previously unreachable (bio)chemical space. In this prospective review, we take a snapshot of current activity in this rapidly developing area, focusing on prominent examples for high-performance applications such as those required for protective materials and the aerospace sector. The continued growth of this emerging field will be facilitated by the convergence of expertise from a range of diverse disciplines, including molecular biology, polymer chemistry, materials science, and process engineering. This review highlights the most significant recent advances and addresses the cross-disciplinary challenges currently being faced.

A high-throughput crystallographic investigation on several crystals of photosynthetic reaction center covalently bound to an ad-hoc synthesized artificial antenna (AE600) is presented. The investigation did not show a preferential binding site of the antenna molecule AE600 to the reaction center in the solid phase. An accurate crystallographic study allowed identifying a lysine residue sitting on periplasmic side of the protein as one of the bioconjugation sites. The residue sits on subunit M of the protein, in close proximity to the bacteriochlorophylls of the reaction center involved in the light absorption and conversion processes. Distances obtained from the crystallographic structure confirm that energy transfer between the antenna and the protein proceed with the Förster resonance mechanism.

The chemical decoration of biosilica shells (frustules) from microalgae with several classes of organic molecules is a convenient, scalable biotechnological route to silica nanostructures with applications ranging from photonics to biomedicine. Here we report for the first time the in vivo staining of Thalassiosira weissflogii diatoms with a two photon red emitting triphenylamine-based fluorescent dye bearing a triethoxysilyl functional group (tPhA-Silane). In vivo staining of the cells has been investigated with confocal microscopy and hybrid silica structures comprising the dye embedded into the biosilica have been isolated by proper protocols able to remove the organic protoplasm.

The covalent functionalization of photosynthetic proteins with properly tailored organic molecular antennas represents a powerful approach to build a new generation of hybrid systems capable of exploiting solar energy. In this paper the strategy for the synthesis of the tailored aryleneethynylene organic fluorophore (AE) properly designed to act as light harvesting antenna is presented along with its successful bioconjugation to the photosynthetic reaction center RC from the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides .