Living cells as bioterror detectors
Terrapin researcher has an idea for bioterror attack detection: Use cells that die when exposed to a particular pathogen, thus providing the early warning; the cells are also engineered to produce a signal, such as fluorescence, when attacked
The trouble with biochemical weapons detectors is that they generate an unacceptable number of false positives, says Benjamin Shapiro, an aerospace engineer at the University of Maryland.
This is because existing detectors are unable to distinguish between all the subtle ways in which pathogens interact with the biological systems and so are easily fooled. Why, he asks, not use biological systems that use real cells to spot the pathogens instead?
The system that Shapiro and colleagues have come up with uses cells that die when exposed to a particular pathogen, which provides the early warning. The cells are also engineered to produce a signal, such as fluorescence, when attacked. They are stored on a chip that keeps them alive and that also monitors the light they produce. The cells can be exposed to pathogens in the air via a semi-permeable membrane. When the cells die and emit light, the system should know within minutes that pathogens are present — just like the canaries that were once used to warn miners of a build-up of toxic gas.
Read Shapiro’s full cellular canaries patent application here.
