Eurekalert November 25, 2019
To date, gene-circuit-based sensors have primarily used optical proteins as reporter outputs, which has limited the potential to measure multiple distinct signals. An international team of researchers (Canada, USA – Arizona State University) has engineered a scalable system of reporter enzymes that cleave specific DNA sequences in solution, which results in an electrochemical signal when these newly liberated strands are captured at the surface of a nanostructured microelectrode. They describe the development of this interface and show its utility using a ligand-inducible gene circuit and toehold switch-based sensors by demonstrating the detection of multiple antibiotic resistance genes in parallel. The technology has the potential to expand the field of synthetic biology by providing an interface for materials, hardware and software…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The new biohybrid system uses non-optical reporter enzymes contained within 16 microlitres of liquid which pair specifically with micropatterned electrodes hosted on a small chip no more than one inch in length. Credit: Steve Southon