Team:Cambridge/Instrumentation

Instrumentation

The aim of the instrumentation project was to develop a cheap, reliable, open-source platform for detecting two emission spectra from our biological samples. In addition to this, our design was to be portable, have full functionality in the field and support any biological sensing input desired (if the biology for this exists that is). To achieve this our design comprises 3 main parts: a mechanical chassis, an electronic interface and the supporting software. We have developed a prototype as an example of how a practical solution could be implemented, however, we realise the potential for many different realisations of appropriate instrumentation and explore some ideas with respect to this below...

Mechanical Design

The Prototype

The prototype chassis consists of 6 slots in a rotary platform that can spin about its central axis. The main reason for selecting this rotary design was cost as it was assumed that one sensor and a motor would be cheaper than having separate sensors for each sample being tested. Furthermore, it means that the device can easily be scaled in the future to meet particular needs. Each slot fits a small cuvette and housing, with reflective film (to concentrate light output) on the inside, into which the appropriately engineered B. Subtilis is placed in desiccated form. By adding the analyte and potentially some germination medium, the B. Subtilis will begin to produce light that can be detected by the sensors above. A further potential addition to the whole design is to include a thermo-regulated box which would facilitate the germination of B.Subtilis spores (A prototype of which has been developed in the Cambridge MET department as part of a separate project); the germination time could also be improved using the motor controlled chassis to perform a shake cycle.

Further investigations

Electronics

The system, as illustrated (right), is made up of a sensor, a motor, an arduino and a breadboard. A Bluetooth modem (Bluesmirf) can also act as an addition to allow the communication with mobile devices (e.g. Android tablets). The sensor is made up of two light dependent resistors that sit in a potential divider circuit allowing for a direct ratiometric output without further calculations needing to be made in the software. To distinguish between the two spectra from our bioluminescent output, plastic filter gels (like the ones used in theatres) have been glued to the top of the sensors. There is also a circuit for running a DC motor, which will turn the rotating parts of our device. The whole system has been incorporated into the mechanical chassis for an attractive, ergonomic overall design.

Software

The software is being developed for both computers and android devices for extra flexibility whatever the final application of the product is. The computer software is written in the free open-source language python with cross-platform wxWidgets used to implement a GUI. The current idea is to develop a fully functional GUI for collecting sensor data from all six inputs and display these as line graphs and in a final bar chart. The data to the left was recorded by moving luciferase-producing E.coli being moved towards and away from the sensor. To the right is a screengrab of the GUI under development and testing its ratiometric ability. The higher values are when one sensor is covered, the lower for the other and no change is observed when both are illuminated equally. What is actually presented is the Morse Code of the word IGEM!!! The android GUI was made in Java using Eclipse based on Amarino open-source code. The first screen (shown below) asks for the MAC address of the Arduino device and currently the application can successfully connect and read real-time data from any Android phone/tablet (all versions are compatible).