Future Plans

Quorum sensing biosensors is possible to provide instant bacterial specie differentiation. Our project is just a prototype of this goal. There are several parts that can be done based on this project.

Figure.1

First, more transcriptional regulators should be studied and built into biobricks. By expanding our database, we will be able to differentiate more types of bacterial strains. On the other hand, reporters with higher intensity should be developed, for if this biosensor wants to reach clinical use, it will definitely have to sense quorum sensing molecules under extremely low concentration, such as 10-8~10-9M.

Figure.2

Next, more functional testing should be done. In our project, we used synthetic AHLs and cultured Pseudomonas species as our targets, and further testing in patient samples should be operated.

Figure.3

Finally, we hope that the construction of quorum sensing biosensors will make it possible for us to build up a classification system based on quorum sensing and the use of drugs targeted toward these quorum sensing downstream genes will provide better treatment to patients with bacterial infection, especially those with resistant strains.