A Novel Electrochemical Reporting System

For FRED to be able to tell us about the toxins he's sensing we needed a good reporter system that could function in a wide array of environments. Unfortunately the traditional fluorescent or luminescent reporters have significant drawbacks that prevent them from being useful in a tailings environment that is murky and potentially anaerobic. Due to these limitations we decided to improve upon last year's electrochemical sensor using the lacZ gene to cleave a substrate into an easily detectable analyte. Our team has developed a system that utilizes three separate reporter genes to provide a triple-output biosensor. This system overcomes traditional reporters in that it is fast, accurate, and can function in turbid environments and even in the absence of oxygen!

How does it work?