Team:USMA-West Point/Description
USMA-West_Point
eNOSE - "Detecting the Undetectable"
Description
This project for the IGEM competition is geared towards creating a system that detects chemicals by way of scent for potential health and military use. Current state-of-the-art inorganic hardware sensors for biological and chemical agent detection are highly tailored for specific chemicals and find difficulty when used to detect compounds outside of a highly defined analyte set. Olfactory receptors are G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) that discriminate thousands of odorants based on genetic sequences that in the presence of a ligand cause cells to generate an electric potential that is measurable using microelectrode arrays (MEAs). Here, we modify HT-22 cells by adding individual olfactory receptors plasmids via nucleofection. A bioreactor was designed with a peristaltic pump system allowing for media to flow across a MEA cultured with neurons which enables the controlled addition of liquid samples for action potential measurement. Analysis of modified neurons serve as a representative model for exploiting the sensitivity and selectivity of native olfactory systems to be used as rapid detection systems for applications in security and medical & health capacities.
Our Purpose
USMA West Point's "eNOSE" was designed with the purpose of detecting improvised explosive devices (IED's), a threat to the present-day warfighter in Iraq and Afghanistan. Alternatives are bomb sniffing dogs and ground penetrating radar, but many small inconsistencies cause these options to be somewhat unreliable. "eNOSE" is a biosensor that uses the same biological machinery as a dog, but without the same inconsistencies. The device uses olfaction, or the sense of smell, to detect odorants in a highly specific manner. "eNOSE" is here to change the battlefield - it is here to "detect the undetectable."
References
- Niimura, Y., Matsui, A. & Touhara, K. Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals. 1-14 (2014). doi:10.1101/gr.169532.113.24
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