Team:Cambridge-JIC

PhytoSpy: a modular biosensor

Project: We are engineering the first Open-Source Biosensor using the new upcoming multicellular chassis, Marchantia Polymorpha.

Aim: To use the primitive plant Marchantia Polymorpha as a flexible hackable bio-sensor. A plant can contain any input, processing and output module which are parcelled independently into modules and linked together using metabolites and inducible promoters. The modules can easily be interchanged and added, using biotechnology or simple Mendelian genetics, allowing many plant-based devices to be constructed from the same library of components, at home or in the lab.

Vision: To make plant biosensors accessible to the home enthusiast in the same way that Arduino makes electronics accessible.