EFRI ELiS: Nano-Bio-Hybrid Living Systems for Airborne Biothreat Detection

Airborne viruses and microbes are a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. They can lead to disease outbreaks and pandemics. Some pathogens pose threats as bioterrorism agents. Current sensing technologies lack the sensitivity, specificity, and ease of use required to make them effective. The objective of this project is to create biosensors that can continuously monitor the presence of a variety of airborne pathogens. The technology will take advantage of the recognition and specificity that intact cells can exhibit towards viral particles and pathogenic microbes. The safety, security, ethical use, and societal impact of these newly developed technologies will also be evaluated. The objective is to develop a biosensing platform wherein target pathogens are captured by bacterially produced engineered living materials. By spatially patterning the bacteria, the resulting distribution of sensor materials can give rise to unique patterns of pathogen binding. The resulting system is referred to as a Nano-augmented Bio-hybrid LIving Sensor System (Nano-BLISS). Bacteria can be designed to produce material that captures different viruses or microbes, so the system is tunable. Performing multi-scale modeling will be required to place the design of the system on a rational basis. Hardware design and development will be guided by multiscale modeling that combines systems biology with data-driven agent-based modeling to establish a functional linkage between intracellular synthetic biology, extracellular engineered nanomaterials, and emergent behaviors in the surrounding engineered living material. Designed systems will be created and validated against different pathogens. Finally, the biosecurity, biosafety, and ethics of integrated living biosensors in built environments will be explored. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.