Mining microbes to engineer novel biosensors

Wearable, continuous, real-time, and non-invasive sensors for quantitatively monitoring an expansive list of human biomarkers remains an unmet need. Existing sensors which rely on measuring physical parameters have shown to be insufficient in providing deeper insight into the body’s state and require external tests as a complement to make precise diagnoses. Gold-standard techniques such as mass spectrometry and immunoassays cannot be taken outside of laboratory, require expensive equipment or highly trained personnel to execute, and are intended for single use tests. Devices which have integrated sensing parts such as DNA aptamers, antibodies, or well characterized enzymes have either failed to demonstrate continuous monitoring or expand past monitoring a handful of biomarkers. To address this need, we propose to mine microbial metagenomes for novel biorecognition elements to engineer biosensors which can monitor critical markers. Microbes have evolved over 3 billion years to detect and respond to virtually all classes of stimuli, yet they remain a vastly untapped and uncharacterized resource. Herein, we describe platform technologies for mining microbes to identify molecule-specific biorecognition elements. We then demonstrate optimization, engineering, and deployment of these low cost, highly specific, real-time, continuously monitoring, portable, and easy-to-use biosensors. The execution of this work not only showcases the engineering of novel nicotine and hormone biosensors but pipelines for developing other physiologically relevant biosensors from microbes.

Author dc:creator

• Kuzmanović, Uroš

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Galagan, James E.

• Biomedical engineering

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2144/45466

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.bu.edu:2144/45466