Team:Cambridge/Tools/microMeasure

An ever popular class of iGEM project is the biosensor. This year more teams than ever have undertaken such a project:

• Peking: heavy metals
• Imperial: parasite detection
• Sheffield: cholera detection

It isn't black and white

There are a numerous existing reporters. However to our knowledge there are none which are both affordable and quantitative. Some teams attempt to solve this problem by using a series of wells sensitive to increasing concentrations of the substance. But this requires a great deal of work to tune the sensors correctly.

A key advantage of biosensors is that they can be mass produced for distribution cheaply. However this is of little use if machines required to read their output are very expensive. The amount of light emitted is an easily assayable result which can be detected using an electronic system similar to our E.glometer.