An unplugged electric instrument may function, but it sounds much better when it is connected to an amplifier. Similarly, toxins and other small molecules at low concentrations in the environment or human body may emit quiet signals that are undetectable without specialized lab technology.
Now, thanks to a “cool trick in biochemistry” used to adapt a sensing platform already being deployed by Northwestern scientists to measure toxins in drinking water, researchers can detect and even measure chemicals at low enough concentrations to have use outside the lab. By attaching circuitry akin to a volume knob to “turn up” weak signals, the team opened the door for the system to be applied to disease detection and monitoring in the human body for nucleic acids like DNA and RNA, as well as bacteria such as E. coli.
The results, which describe a system that is 10 times more sensitive than previous cell-free sensors built by the team, were published today (Jan. 13) in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Biosensors repurposed from nature can, in principle, detect a whole spectrum of contaminants and human health markers, though they’re often not sensitive enough as is. By adding genetic circuitry that acts like an amplifier, we can make this biosensing platform meet sensitivity levels needed for application in environmental and human health monitoring.”
Julius Lucks, corresponding author and Northwestern synthetic biologist
Lucks is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and a co-director of the Center for Synthetic Biology.
Engineering a