Dartmouth Events

ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 945 3678 9368
Passcode: 018857

The inner workings of the human gut remain one of the final frontiers of science. In particular, the gastrointestinal (GI) microenvironment is poorly understood. This dynamic environment defines how gut bacteria build communities, which exercise profound influence on health and disease. However, we lack the tools to explore it. Rapid advances in synthetic biology are harnessing the information-processing abilities of living cells to diagnose disease in such difficult-to-access environments. For example, intestinal microbes can be genetically rewired to sense short-lived mediators of inflammation, such as nitric oxide (NO).

Here, I’ll show the power of synthetic memory circuits to engineer living bacterial probes that can record NO exposure as they travel through the GI tract. We engineered bacteria to respond to NO by luminescing and then packaged 1 μL of the bacterial culture in an ingestible capsule with a photodetector and radio. We demonstrated real-time monitoring in the GI tract of small and large animal models and integration of all components into a blueberry-size capsule capable of wireless communication. These technologies open up exciting new opportunities to unlock a wealth of information about the body's function, its relationship with the environment, and the impact of disease and therapeutic interventions.