Generation of selenium nano- and micro-materials using abiotic and biotic processes

We have previously described the generation of Metal Organic Biohybrids (MOBs) as self-assembling structures that are formed by a combination of a biological component (amino acid), and a metal, such as copper. This MOBs synthesis process has now been distilled to be purely biochemical (a green chemistry process), or abiotic, not requiring the presence of cells. Building on these discoveries, in this commentary we describe the use of selenium for the first time using MOBs synthesis techniques, as well as using biotic techniques, that is, selenium in the presence of living microbes. New and different materials are described using the respective techniques, which have different nano- and micro-scale properties. We anticipate that the abiotic and biotic techniques may provide parallel methods for generating new MOBs and new nanomaterials, respectively. One potential application of the generated materials could include treatments for cancer, since in the case of selenium-containing MOBs, we demonstrate 100 percent biodegradability.