BioBricks microbes can identify land mines?
Bioengineering has a checkered reputation. Many people object to science manipulating nature for gain, and suspect that such initiatives will come back to haunt us through unexpected mutations and environmental impact. However, in a nice little story Scottish researchers have developed a bacterium that glows green in the presence of explosives. Such a development could prove a boon to nations left with a legacy of unmapped and unexploded ordinance such as Cambodia, Lebanon and many parts of Africa. While the bacterium is still only at laboratory test stage, the prospect of wider deployment sounds like potentially a major step forward.
BIOENGINEERED bacteria that glow green in the presence of explosives could someday give Cambodia a safer, cheaper way to detect land mines, Scottish researchers say.
The bacterium was Edinburgh University’s entry in the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, which challenges students to develop living inventions using a set of standard genetic “parts” known as BioBricks.
Dr Alistair Elfick, who led the team, explained: “The device uses E coli engineered to produce a sensing molecule and a reporting mechanism. The explosives detector has a … membrane receptor which binds volatile TNT molecules and … produces light.”
The bacteria, which could be modified for use with other explosives, is harmless to people and animals. Environmental impact is minimised, Elfick said, by the fact that cells “die after a few hours, as they are not robust enough to survive in the wild.”
It will be a while before the bacteria are released on Cambodian soil, however – researchers have tested it only “on a very small scale and within the lab”.
“There’s a lot of work to do before it could be used in the field,” Elfick noted.
Anti-mine microbes? | National news | The Phnom Penh Post – Cambodia’s Newspaper of Record
