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。它们可能导致疾病暴发和大流行。一些病原体构成了生物恐怖主义的威胁。目前的传感技术缺乏使其有效所需的敏感度、特异度和易用性。该项目的目标是创造能够持续监测各种空气传播病原体存在的生物传感器。这项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。还将评估这些新开发技术的安全性、安全性、伦理用途和社会影响。目标是开发一个生物传感平台，其中目标病原体可以通过细菌生产的工程生物材料来捕获。通过对细菌进行空间构图，由此产生的传感器材料的分布可以产生独特的病原体结合模式。由此产生的系统被称为纳米增强生物混合生物传感器系统(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，所以系统是可调的。执行多尺度建模将需要将系统的设计放在合理的基础上。硬件设计和开发将以多尺度建模为指导，将系统生物学与基于数据驱动的代理建模相结合，在细胞内合成生物、细胞外工程纳米材料和周围工程生物材料的紧急行为之间建立功能联系。设计的系统将被创建并针对不同的病原体进行验证。最后，将探讨建筑环境中集成生物传感器的生物安全、生物安全和伦理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.