New biosensors offer greater control of engineered bacteria

Researchers have developed new biosensor technology that holds the potential to provide better control over genetically-engineered bacteria.

The new study from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard has resulted in the creation of a new suite of sensors that can increase the number of cellular switches and levers that scientists can use for complex genetic reprogramming.

Biosensors are made with a biological component, such as a fluorescent protein, and a detector that responds to the presence of specific chemicals. They are used to turn programmed functions on and off inside engineered cells, and to detect which microbes are producing the greatest amounts of a desired chemical.

The biosensors can be used to trigger individual cells to give off visible fluorescence in a rate directly proportional to how well they are able to produce a desired chemical commodity. This reduces the bottleneck of the design-build-test cycle, caused by the need to find top producers manually.

With these devices, it will be easier to develop renewable chemical production strategies using genetically engineered microbes, while new applications in environmental monitoring or metabolic pathway research could also be made possible.

Wyss core faculty member Dr George Church said: "We're trying to control biological processes and we need new ways to get our hands in at the molecular level – we're now reaching in deeper than we've previously been able to."