Yeast-Based Biosensor for Organophosphate Detection

"There exists a military and homeland security need for rapid, accurate and sensitive methods for the detection of organophosphates in cluttered environments. For this Phase I program, the Luna Innovations team proposes to create receptors targeted againstorganophosphate targets. These receptors can be easily, cheaply and rapidly modified to defeat countermeasures. The ability of these receptors to activate transcription in response to the target will be exploited in a yeast-based biosensor. Yeast are anextremely hardy organism able to survive temperature extremes and desiccation for long periods of time and, therefore, are ideal to use as the basis of a whole cell biosensor. The Luna team has previously engineered yeast to fluoresce under long UV lightupon target binding. The yeast could also be engineered so that in response to the target, a signal transduction cascade is activated that leads to an easily and rapidly measured parameter, such as a change in membrane potential. The Luna team is bothqualified and motivated to build upon their combined demonstrated abilities to develop and commercialize this revolutionary technology. Research concerning whole cell biosensors will yield immediate applications in 1) chemical/ biological agent detection,2) mine detection, 3) drinking and wastewater monitoring, 4) large-scale, high-speed testing in the medical field, 5) chemical analysis, and 6) intelligent process monitoring of adva