Matthew Sparkes is a writer.
The computer is not set up for a formal analysis.
Julius Lucks is a student at the university.
A cheap and simple way to test the concentration of contaminants in drinking water is offered by a biological computer. Experiments show that computer science can be used to make future biological computers more powerful at detecting contaminants.
The biosensor created by Julius Lucks and his colleagues will be able to detect pollutants in a single drop of water. The fluorescent molecule is created by the presence of certain chemicals. The reaction acts as a warning that a water sample is polluted.
The reactions were inspired by the evolution of the mechanisms within the bacterium. Scientists initially tried to engineer thebacteria to carry out the tests, but it was a challenge to keep them alive and stop them from spreading into the environment. This led to the creation of a synthetic biological version where the mechanisms are isolated from the bacteria.
Join us for a mind-blowing festival of ideas and experiences. New Scientist Live is going hybrid, with a live in-person event in Manchester, UK, that you can also enjoy from the comfort of your own home, from 12 to 14 March 2022. Find out more.In synthetic biology, we're trying to re-engineer the machines that detect toxins so they do different things.
The team has created a more advanced version of the system that can warn of the presence of dangerous chemicals and also report on the amounts present so that steps can be taken.
The ROSALIND 2.0 system has eight small test tubes, each containing a biosensor with a different sensitivity. The water sample has trace levels ofContamination if only one tube glows. The water is shown to be more polluted as more tubes glow.
The test works by using strands of DNA, according to Lucks. These are designed to prevent the final fluorescent product from being produced by binding strongly to a key intermediate product.
Each tube has a bigger amount of this DNA. The final fluorescent step of the reaction only occurs after the decoy DNA is used up, so a tube with a low amount of decoy DNA may fluoresce in the presence of the contaminant, but a tube with a high amount of this DNA may not. It is possible to see where the fluorescent reaction stops by looking at the row of eight tubes.
ROSALIND 2.0 could detect zinc, an antibiotic and an industrial metabolite.
When needed, the cell-free tests can be activated simply by dropping a water sample into each test tube.
The concentration of a contaminant helps to determine the necessary action. If you have a small amount of lead in your drinking water supply, you might only need to flush the pipes. If you have high levels, you may need to stop drinking the water.
Everyone should have these things, says Lucks.
He hopes that ROSALIND 2.0 can help with the assessment of water quality.
The team demonstrated that the engineered DNA can be used to carry out logical operations. They believe that it can be made to react to the presence of one material, but only if two specific chemicals are found, or if neither is found. It paves the way for more sophisticated analysis to be built into simpler tests.
Nature Chemical Biology is a journal.
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