Ingestible ‘bacteria on a chip’ could help diagnose disease
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Ultra-low-power sensors carrying genetically engineered bacteria can detect gastric bleeding.
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In the past decade, synthetic biologists have made great strides in engineering bacteria to respond to stimuli such as environmental pollutants or markers of disease.
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These bacteria can be designed to produce outputs such as light when they detect the target stimulus, but specialized lab equipment is usually required to measure this response.
Mark Mimee, Phillip Nadeau, Alison Hayward, Sean Carim, Sarah Flanagan, Logan Jerger, Joy Collins, Shane McDonnell, Richard Swartwout, Robert J. Citorik, Vladimir Bulović, Robert Langer, Giovanni Traverso, Anantha P. Chandrakasan, Timothy K. Lu. An ingestible bacterial-electronic system to monitor gastrointestinal health. Science, 2018; 360 (6391): 915 DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9315