A Robotic Laboratory Workstation to Expand the Capabilities of a Toxin Biosensor
Abstract
We propose to purchase a state-of-the-art laboratory automation workstation to perform high throughput engineering of synthetic microbial strains to vastly expand the capabilities of a DoD-funded biosensor. The additional purchase of an inverted microscope will enable us to rapidly screen the fluorescent responses of these new strains to a large range of target toxins. These instruments will support DoD sponsored research efforts by several labs at UCSD involved in biosensor development, will accelerate progress on a DoD Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) related to dynamic artificial cells, and will greatly strengthen and facilitate the education of students with respect to both projects. The biosensor platform that we are currently developing for the DoD will house 2,000 strains of S. cerevisiae and E. coli and will detect many toxins of concern for national security. The current design will make use of existing GFP libraries in these two species, in which each gene is paired with a GFP reporter. These strains will be patterned on a microfluidic device, and the pattern of responses from the fluorescent strains will be used to identify the presence and concentration of target toxins. While this approach will likely be successful in detecting many agents of interest, an expanded effort to include other species in which such libraries do not exist will vastly increase the number and types of water-borne agents that we can detect. In order to transform and characterize the response of new species, we will require a robotic laboratory workstation with the ability to perform high-throughput liquid handling in a highly customizable fashion along with a dedicated inverted microscope to screen their performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 08, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1208039
Entities
People
- Jeff Hasty
Organizations
- University of California, San Diego