Bacterial-based Biosensor Digital Twin for Microbial Community Sensing (US-Ireland-R&D Partnership)

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In the 21st century, the understanding of microbial ecology evolution is a critical challenge, especially as we are tackling new emerging threats to our health as well as the global environment. This collaborative US-Ireland R&D Partnership project aims to address this challenge by developing a system that can sense molecular communications from living bacteria in the natural environment, and feeding this information to its equivalent digital twin, in order to allow us to observe and predict their conversation and tap deep into their internal functionalities that control their behaviors. This will be realized through a detailed computer produced digital twin model of the bacteria’s intra and inter-cellular communication model, which is wirelessly connected to a novel integrated living cell biosensor with electrochemical nanosensors. The resulting impact of this system is a new monitoring tool to understand how bacteria evolve and transform their capabilities. This project will develop a cross-cultural Trans-Atlantic mentoring program, where undergraduates from the US and Ireland will be jointly mentored by a team of researchers with the aim of attracting women and underrepresented minorities to do multi-disciplinary breakthrough research. The project will also develop and deliver programming activities to middle-and high-school students as part of the outreach program.In the 21st century, the understanding of microbial ecology evolution is an emerging challenge, especially as we are tackling new emerging threats to our health as well as the global environment. The aim of this US-Ireland R&D Partnership is to develop a novel system that senses communication molecules from living bacterial cells using a novel integrated engineered E.Coli biosensor with an electrochemical nanosensor and feeding this information to a digital twin that will enable prediction and observation of their complex communication patterns. The in silico digital twin will be constructed from a combination of 3D trans-omics data models with parameter inferencing techniques from wet lab experimental data integrated with biophysical computational models. This system will provide detailed information that correlates the intra and inter-cellular communications under a specific environmental condition. Solid state generator-collector electrochemical sensors will be designed to eliminate interference for deployment into the environment to increase the accuracy of information that is transmitted to the digital twin. The research in this project can lay the groundwork of an open platform for “Bacterial Citizens on the Internet," where researchers can (i) develop new forms of bio-cyber environmental monitoring of ecological systems, (ii) provide collaborative initiatives for global bacterial tracking to understand how they evolve and spread globally, and (iii) design future bio-hybrid implantable devices for disease detection. A prototype demonstrator will be developed to show communication between wild-type bacteria to a computer, focusing on two case study scenarios, which are “Bacterial conversation in chronic wounds” and “Conversation enabling Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) in soil microbiome." This project is jointly funded by the Biosensing Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.