Synthetic Biology: Engineered Cells Detect Diabetes and Cancer

June 4, 2015

(Medical Xpress) – A Stanford-designed project has built a startling new tool for diagnostic medicine: living biosensors made of bacteria that glow a particular color when they detect trouble. The team rewired the genetic circuitry inside bacterial cells so that the cells recognized abnormal glucose levels in urine, signaling diabetes. The custom-designed bacteria show the practical promise of the fledgling field of synthetic biology, which designs and builds organisms unlike anything made by Mother Nature.