The current global pandemic and the risk of future outbreak events has provided a strong motivation to rethink how we monitor and respond to emergent threats. A potential solution is to create living systems that detect, recognize, actuate, and mitigate emergent biological threats. To create strong stakeholder engagement and define a vision for living sensor and actuator systems, a survey has been created to broadly engage the community. The survey results will be used at an in-person workshop to develop a roadmap for living sensor and actuator research. 

The ultimate goal of these activities will frame the foundational challenges in detecting and recognizing health and environmental threats in real time and building devices from living and non-living parts that mitigate those threats using synthetic biology. By bringing together researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines (biology, engineering, materials science, social sciences, and more), we seek to stimulate a rigorous discussion that supports the development of recommendations to advance the field.

The 2023 workshop report can be accessed here.

This NSF-funded workshop (#2317614) is being organized by:  Jonathan Silberg (Rice University), James Chappell (Rice University), Emma Frow (ASU), Neha Kamat (Northwestern University), Kirstin Matthews (Rice University), Jin Kim Montclare (NYU), Corey Wilson (Georgia Tech), Sameer Sonkusale (Tufts University), and Lesa Tran Lu (Rice University).