There is a need for new sensor technologies in a wide range of applications, from monitoring of industrial bioprocesses in real time, through to detecting pollutants in environmental waste streams.

Nanosensr is a spin out project from University of Edinburgh team Teuta Pilizota and James Flewellen. They have developed a novel biosensor technology which is sensitive to biological chemical markers in liquids that other sensing modalities cannot detect. This novel technology is only a few millimetres in size and has extremely low power requirements, which means it is not only more sensitive than existing sensors, but can also be deployed in new applications not covered by existing sensors.

The technology provides a real-time, continuous, electrical output in response to the concentration of defined markers in solution. This enables real-time monitoring of bioprocessing to determine the performance and efficiency of the process, and allows immediate adjustments to be made as required.

Challenge

The Nanosensr team needed to pilot a bioengineering methodology that would allow them to create input specificities for the biosensor platform. In theory, specificity can be developed to any molecule that biology has evolved to interact with and the potential for the technology is therefore enormous.

Solution

Scottish Water Horizons kindly provided samples for Nanosensr to test their device on. The team piloted a computational method for searching the protein databank and identifying proteins that show potential for use as biosensing inputs. This involved selecting proteins that bind to four analytes of interest, and bioengineering a set of hybrid chemoreceptors for one of these analytes; validating in silico and planning to validate in bacterial strain; and performance testing the bacteria chassis with real world samples from Scottish Water Horizons.

Outcome

The first part of the technical project returned more results than could feasibly be addressed in the scope of the project. Discussions with IBioIC at this early stage helped the team develop revised project aims, which were more successful.

This project has allowed Nanosensr to secure a commercial champion and further funding, and also map the regulatory landscape for these types of sensors.