Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed bacteria that work like transistors. They control the flow of chemical signals instead of electrical current.
The scientists used strains of Pantoea agglomerans, bacteria commonly found on plants. Two types of modified cells act as N- and P-transistors, and three relay strains transmit signals between them.
Colonies are printed on an agar surface using an acoustic dispenser. By changing the arrangement of the five strains, different circuits can be assembled without altering the bacteria's genetics.
The team has already built circuits that add two or three inputs and also direct a signal to the desired output. The largest circuit includes 24 colonies.
Computations take about eight hours — slow by electronics standards, but acceptable for biological processes. How will this affect the future of agriculture?
In the future, such living circuits could cover plant leaves or roots. They would respond to drought or pests by triggering defense mechanisms.
The work was published on 17 August 2026 in Nature Chemical Biology. The lead author is MIT postdoc Hamid Dousthosseini, and the senior author is Christopher Voigt.
The study shows how the principles of pass-transistor logic can be transferred to living cells. This paves the way for modular biological computers.
