Synthetic Gene Circuits Enable Systems-Level Biosensor Trigger Discovery at the Host-Microbe Interface
Abstract
The gut is a largely obscure and inaccessible environment. The use of live, engineered probiotics to detect and respond to disease signals in vivo represents a new frontier in the management of gut diseases. Engineered probiotics have also shown promise as a novel mechanism for drug delivery. However, the design and construction of effective strains that respond to the in vivo environment is hindered by our limited understanding of bacterial behavior in the gut. Our work expands the pool of environmentally responsive synthetic circuits for the healthy and diseased gut, providing insight into host-microbe interactions and enabling future development of increasingly complex biosensors. This method also provides a framework for rapid prototyping of engineered systems and for application across bacterial strains and disease models, representing a practical step toward the construction of clinically useful synthetic tools.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 27, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1128/msystems.00125-19
Entities
People
- Alexander D. Naydich
- David T Riglar
- Disha Trivedi
- Jeffrey C Way
- Johannes J. Bues
- Mara C. Inniss
- Matthew J. Niederhuber
- Nabeel Nissar
- Pamela Silver
- Shannon N. Nangle
Organizations
- Harvard Medical School
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering