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Mine-Detecting Bacteria Not Quite Ready for Prime Time (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on December 3rd, 2009
Soil and plants glow around a land mine. Oak Ridge National Labs developed a bacteria that glowed under UV light after exposure to land mines. Recent work at iGEM hopes to improve upon the system.

Soil and plants glow around a land mine. Oak Ridge National Labs developed a bacteria that glowed under UV light after exposure to land mines. Recent work at iGEM hopes to improve upon the system.

Synthetic biology and students are mixing with explosive results. Remember the international Genetically Engineered Machine competition we told you was coming? It happened, and while there were many amazing and interesting projects (we’ll have a story on that later) there’s one team that’s already gotten a lot of media hype. BBC News reported that students from University of Edinburgh have developed a new strand of bacteria that will glow green in the presence of land mines. That’s very close to the truth. The Edinburgh team has made some great strides in that direction but haven’t produced a working system yet. What they have made is a kooky (maybe even embarrassingly silly) video about their work. Check it out after the break.

Oak Ridge National Labs was developing a land mine detecting bacteria ten years ago that required UV illumination (the above image shows their results). The Edinburgh team hopes to improve upon the ORNL system by eliminating the need for complex lighting. Using the BioBrick parts provided by MIT, the Scottish team genetically modified a strand of bacteria (Rhodococcus rhodochrous) so that it will react to increased levels of nitrites in soils – this indicates the presence of TNT or RDX, important ingredients in most land mines. If successful, the Edinburgh bacteria could be mixed in a solution and sprayed on fields, allowing workers to locate and disarm the mines. With tens of thousands of deaths occurring each year due to abandoned mines and unexploded ordinance, this project has potential of saving the limbs and lives of victims, many of whom would be children. The project’s not done, but it certainly is an amazing endeavor for a group of college students.

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Bacteria Harnessed To Power Micro-Motor

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by Aaron Saenz on October 26th, 2009

Need to power your microscopic electronics? Don’t think high-tech, think Medieval. Like a team of miniature horses at a mill, Italian scientists have harnessed the movement of bacteria to turn a rotor just 48 microns wide. Researchers at the University of Rome placed an asymmetric cog in a bath of E. coli bacteria moving around randomly. Surprising many, the seemingly random bacterial movement allowed the rotor to rotate at about 1 rpm. The work is currently published on the online archive ArXiv.org. When fully harnessed, the motion of bacteria could become a viable means to power microscopic or even nanoscopic technology.

The motion of bacteria caused this notched cog to rotate. The yellow circled dot is a reference point.

The motion of bacteria caused this notched cog to rotate. The yellow circled dot is a reference point.

Many proposed concepts of harnessing bacterial motion actually involve harnessing the bacteria with tiny molecular strings. Others want to use the “carrot” approach, encouraging bacteria to push a rotor by making it appealing somehow. The University of Rome team’s work shows that we can get power without all this effort. Just the natural movement of E. coli is enough to turn an asymmetric cog. While they will undoubtedly also pursue the harness or carrot approach, the Italian team has proven the most basic concept works. This means that we have an entirely new potential source of power at our disposal. Like batteries made from viruses we’ve discussed before, bacterial motors could be scaled up to function at the human scale, but are much more likely to be used in microscopic applications. Imagine tiny computer chips that you could could power with sewage (E. coli food), or biosensors that were powered and triggered by the bacteria around them.

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New Biosensor Finds Bacteria In Seconds

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by Aaron Saenz on September 22nd, 2009

A new project from Spain has created a means of detecting water borne bacteria in seconds.

A new project from Spain has created a means of detecting water borne bacteria in seconds.

Drinking the water in a foreign country always seems like something of a gamble. Could be clean, could be a one way trip to spending the entirety of your vacation in the bathroom. Luckily, a research team at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain has developed a biosensor that can detect bacteria at levels as low as 1 cell per 5 mL of water. As reported in FECYT and SINC, the project utilized carbon nanotubes and fragments of DNA to detect Salmonella tyhpi, the bacteria that causes Typhoid Fever. And the best part? Water can be tested in just a few seconds.

Bacterial infections may be an inconvenience to tourists, but they are down right deadly to third world citizens. Water borne pathogens account for millions of deaths each year world wide. Typhoid Fever alone claims 500,000+ each year according to the WHO. A quick test for pathogens will greatly increase the safety of potable water, and avoid the pandemics that often accompany infected wells. If the technology can be adapted to other bacteria…we may be talking about millions of lives saved each year.

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