Project Description
Imagine designing living organisms with the ability to sense and respond to different chemicals present in the built environment. One could build microorganisms that sense TNT in landmines and identify their locations; or have houseplants that can identify hazardous levels of pollutants. My research group is developing fundamentally new technologies to enable such engineered living systems. This research project seeks to develop new sensing platforms for a class of portable, genetically encodable biosensors my research group has developed. The student will design proteins able to sense specific small organic molecules and port the genetic sequences encoding these designs to microorganisms and living plants. The student will learn how to plan, design, execute, and analyze experiments; a bevy of bench experimental techniques including protein expression and purification, molecular cloning, and microbial growth-based assays; and oral and written dissemination of research projects.
Special Requirements
There are no strict requirements but preference will be given to students able to code in Python and with some previous bench experience.
Contacts
- Timothy Whitehead (faculty)
- Alison Leonard (graduate student)