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 E-Mail While the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has become the poster child for innovation in synthetic biology, it has some major limitations. CRISPR-Cas9 can be programmed to find and cut specific pieces of DNA, but editing the DNA to create desired mutations requires tricking the cell into using a new piece of DNA to repair the break. This bait-and-switch can be complicated to orchestrate, and can even be toxic to cells because Cas9 often cuts unintended, off-target sites as well. Alternative gene editing techniques called recombineering instead perform this bait-and-switch by introduci...

Image Credit: Shutterstock / fusebulb By sealing bacteria in tough yet porous, outer casings, environmental scientists could use these organisms as safe and effective detectors of environmental contaminants like heavy metals.  Developing a strain of engineered bacteria that can effectively be used as a sensor to detect contaminants in environments has been a hot scientific topic for years. Bacteria created this way could help researchers in the vital task of tracking changes in pollution levels over wide geographical areas.  Yet, whilst genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs) are great ...

Credits: Image: Christine Daniloff, MIT Previous image Next image In recent years, scientists have developed many strains of engineered bacteria that can be used as sensors to detect environmental contaminants such as heavy metals. If deployed in the natural environment, these sensors could help scientists track how pollutant levels change over time, over a wide geographic area. MIT engineers have now devised a way to make this kind of deployment safer, by encasing bacterial sensors in a tough hydrogel shell that prevents them from escaping into the environme...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Researchers from theAntimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) atSingapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed a tool using CRISPRi technology that can help understand and prevent biofilm development, drug resistance, and other physiological behaviors of bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis. E. faecalis, which is found in the human gut, is one of the most prevalent causes of hospital-associated infections and can l...

By J.P. LAWRENCE | STARS AND STRIPES Published: February 3, 2021 Kombucha tea has inspired new Army-funded technology that may help troops carry out potentially life-saving tasks, such as detecting chemicals and other pollutants in the environment or purifying water in the field. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Imperial College London used SCOBY — which stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast and is a byproduct of the fermentation process used to make the fizzy, often tart beverage — to produce cellulose that can perform numerous functions. By modi...