We have designed a bacterial system that is switched between different states by red light. The system consists of a synthetic sensor kinase that allows a lawn of bacteria to function as a biological film, such that the projection of a pattern of light on to the bacteria produces a high-definition (about 100 megapixels per square inch), two-dimensional chemical image. This spatial control of bacterial gene expression could be used to 'print' complex biological materials, for example, and to investigate signalling pathways through precise spatial and temporal control of their phosphorylation steps.

1. Biophysics Program, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA
2. Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology and Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
4. Department of Synthetic Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
5. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, California 94107, USA

Correspondence to: Christopher A. Voigt^1,4,5 Email: cavoigt@picasso.ucsf.edu

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