U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM)-Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, USA.
Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2021 Jun;16(6):688-697. doi: 10.1038/s41565-021-00878-4. Epub 2021 Mar 29.
We developed a bioelectronic communication system that is enabled by a redox signal transduction modality to exchange information between a living cell-embedded bioelectronics interface and an engineered microbial network. A naturally communicating three-member microbial network is 'plugged into' an external electronic system that interrogates and controls biological function in real time. First, electrode-generated redox molecules are programmed to activate gene expression in an engineered population of electrode-attached bacterial cells, effectively creating a living transducer electrode. These cells interpret and translate electronic signals and then transmit this information biologically by producing quorum sensing molecules that are, in turn, interpreted by a planktonic coculture. The propagated molecular communication drives expression and secretion of a therapeutic peptide from one strain and simultaneously enables direct electronic feedback from the second strain, thus enabling real-time electronic verification of biological signal propagation. Overall, we show how this multifunctional bioelectronic platform, termed a BioLAN, reliably facilitates on-demand bioelectronic communication and concurrently performs programmed tasks.
我们开发了一种生物电子通讯系统，该系统采用氧化还原信号转导方式，使嵌入活细胞的生物电子界面与工程微生物网络之间能够进行信息交换。一个自然交流的三成员微生物网络被“插入”到一个外部电子系统中，该系统实时询问和控制生物功能。首先，电极产生的氧化还原分子被编程以激活电极附着的细菌细胞工程群体中的基因表达，有效地创建了一个活体换能器电极。这些细胞解释和转换电子信号，然后通过产生群体感应分子来进行生物传输，这些分子反过来被浮游共培养物解释。传播的分子通讯驱动一种菌株表达和分泌一种治疗性肽，同时允许第二菌株直接进行电子反馈，从而能够实时电子验证生物信号的传播。总的来说，我们展示了这种多功能生物电子平台，称为 BioLAN，如何可靠地促进按需生物电子通讯，并同时执行编程任务。
