Research Projects

Some bacteria can pick up DNA from the environment and use it for themselves, a process called natural competence. Bacteria have been doing this for billions of years to swap genes and improve their survival in an ever-changing world. But as long as bacteria are picking up DNA, can we ask them to keep a lookout for genes, or even mutations, that we're interested in? For example, could they let us know if they see DNA from a particular pathogen, or a mutation that might indicate cancer?

We are engineering bacteria to do just this, creating living biosensors that can detect and report on exact DNA sequences. The most powerful aspect of these "bactosensors" is that they can analyze DNA without time-intensive sample processing, even from very dirty samples or inside the gut! Our goals are to develop these DNA "bactosensors" for two applications: non-invasively sampling the gut environment, and as portable devices that could detect target genes in the field or at point-of-care, with minimal equipment or sample processing.