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

空气传播的病毒和微生物是全球疾病和死亡的主要原因。它们可能导致疾病爆发和大流行。一些病原体构成生物恐怖主义剂的威胁。 目前的传感技术缺乏使其有效所需的灵敏度、特异性和易用性。该项目的目标是创建生物传感器，可以连续监测各种空气传播的病原体的存在。 该技术将利用完整细胞对病毒颗粒和病原微生物的识别和特异性。 这些新开发的技术的安全性，安全性，道德使用和社会影响也将被评估。目标是开发一个生物传感平台，其中目标病原体被细菌产生的工程活材料捕获。通过对细菌进行空间图案化，所得到的传感器材料的分布可以产生病原体结合的独特模式。所得到的系统被称为纳米增强生物混合活体传感器系统（Nano-BLISS）。细菌可以被设计成产生捕获不同病毒或微生物的材料，因此该系统是可调的。执行多尺度建模将需要将系统的设计置于合理的基础上。硬件设计和开发将由多尺度建模指导，该建模将系统生物学与数据驱动的基于代理的建模相结合，以建立细胞内合成生物学，细胞外工程纳米材料和周围工程生物材料中涌现行为之间的功能联系。设计的系统将针对不同的病原体进行创建和验证。最后，生物安全，生物安全，并在建筑环境中集成的生物传感器的伦理将explored.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.