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Team:UCL London/Applications
From 2009.igem.org
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Applications
There are many potential applications of biosensors of different types. The main specifications of a biosensor approach is to be valuable in terms of: research and commercial applications are the identification of a target molecule, availability of a suitable biological recognition element, and the potential for disposable portable detection systems to be preferred to sensitive laboratory-based techniques in some situations. Our Biosensor was created to be sensitive to particular stresses in the cell such as mis-folded protein and reduction in Oxygen levels. Biosensors such as “The Stress lighter” can be modified to detect various other parameters. Unlike other biosensors, when the cell/organism is stressed the biosensor detects this and switches on the genes for a florescent protein to be transcribed and seen visually. This enables the area in a bioreactor for example where the cells are stressed, to be visually seen as soon as the florescent protein is translated. Many companies in industry have to spend enormous amount of money to detect and monitor parameters during downstream processing. Fermentation, Centrifugation, Homogenisation and other downstream processing stages increase the risk of the biological product becoming stressed. The usage of “The Stress Lighter”, will detect certain parameters which correlates to the stressed cells.
There are also environmental applications of a biosensor; e.g. the detection of pesticides and river water contaminants. Eutrophication is a huge problem in our ecosystem. Eutrophication is defined as the increase in the concentration of chemical nutrients in the environment. Depending on the degree of eutrophication, subsequent negative environmental effects such as anoxia and severe reductions in water quality, fish, and other animal populations may occur. “The Traffic Lighter” can be used as a measuring device to monitor the amount of florescence generated by the presence of nutrients such as Nitrate in water bodies. At UCL we are working on the advancement of “The Stress Lighter”. A Future application of the stress lighter is that it may be used for remote sensing of airborne bacteria e.g. in counter-bioterrorist activities. Furthermore, biosensors can effectively be used to monitor the glucose levels in diabetic patients. Currently researchers all over the world are working to modify the sensitivity of the in vivo glucose sensors to be more analogous to the in vitro sensors.
Some examples of how “The Stress Lighter” can be applied are listed below: • Glucose monitoring in diabetic patients • Determining levels of toxic substances before and after bioremediation • Detection and determining of organophosphate • Determination of drug residues in food, such as antibiotics and growth promoters, particularly meat and honey. • Drug discovery and evaluation of biological activity of new compounds. • Detection of toxic metabolites such as mycotoxins
More information can be found at the following links. http://www.biosensor.se/applications
http://www.springerlink.com/content/
