NSF Award
2502655
The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of sensors for a wide array of previously undetectable chemicals. Global industrialization has created advanced materials and chemicals that persist in the environment with lasting effects on human health. Current technologies that test for environmental contaminants using chromatographic methods and laboratory test kits are slow, expensive, and inaccessible to consumers. This chemical sensor technology may provide portable test strips (similar to those used to test for COVID-19) to test for small molecules characteristic of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS). This technology may make field-based and in-home testing of pesticides and PFAS possible for the first time, giving consumers and regulators a way to alleviate safety concerns about pollutants in drinking water and food. <br/><br/>This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of PYR1 biosensors, plant hormone receptors that, when mutated, may be used to identify a wide variety of chemicals, including environmental contaminants (e.g., organophosphate pesticides and PFAS). Ligand recognition occurs exclusively in the PYR1 subunit, not the HAB1 partner, which makes the system significantly easier to engineer for new ligands than previously developed methods. The efficacy of these sensors has been demonstrated in yeast, bacteria, plants, and in vitro to test for substances of abuse in blood, urine, and saliva. These sensors also have been stabilized for high temperature and used as sensors in living plants. To date, the sensors have been designed for hundreds of target molecules, and ongoing refinement of the pipeline methodology makes it possible to identify sensors for new targets in less than a week.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
