Towards microbial tissue engineering?

Tissue engineering involves the creation of multicellular tissues from individual cells. It was previously perceived that tissues were only formed by higher organisms such as plants and animals. However, it is now known that multicellular systems of microorganisms, such as microbial colonies, biofilms, flocs and aggregates, can also show extensive spatial organization. Here, we discuss methods that can be used to spatially organize microorganisms – bacteria, in particular – into tissue-like materials with defined internal architectures. Some potential uses of such ‘microbial tissues’ are covered.