a gpt generated visual

a gpt generated visual

1. Provide an abstract/narrative/summary for your final project.

This project explores the use of wearable biosensors to visualize environmental change through direct, bodily interaction. Focusing on zinc and pH as indicators of water quality and urban runoff, the project uses freeze-dried cell-free systems embedded in fabric to produce visible outputs upon rehydration. The aim is to create a responsive wearable that reacts to environmental exposure, translating imperceptible pollution into an immediate and personal experience. This approach builds on recent developments in synthetic biology that enable the detection of ions and chemical conditions outside of laboratory settings. By embedding biosensing into textiles, the project investigates how design and biotechnology can work together to connect climate and environmental issues to everyday life. The outcome is a single-use wearable prototype that highlights the presence of environmental stressors, proposing a model for future work in citizen sensing, climate communication, and responsive materials.

2. Provide a background and motivation section for your final project.

a. Explain your motivation for pursuing your project

I’m interested in how biosensors can be used for environmental monitoring and how they might connect climate and environmental issues to everyday experience. By working with zinc and pH as indicators of water quality and urban pollution, I hope to make these invisible changes visible and tangible through wearable materials.

b. Describing the current state of knowledge related to your project. Try to cite at least 2 peer-reviewed research papers.

Research in synthetic biology sensors has advanced significantly in recent years, especially the development of freeze-dried, cell-free biosensors capable of detecting a wide range of environmental targets, enabling on-site detection of environmental targets such as metal ions and pH levels. Recent studies have demonstrated their integration into wearable materials for molecular sensing (Nguyen et al. 2021) and proposed scalable frameworks for embedding these systems into built environments (Ho et al. 2023).

Nguyen, Peter Q., Luis R. Soenksen, Nina M. Donghia, et al. “Wearable Materials with Embedded Synthetic Biology Sensors for Biomolecule Detection.” Nature Biotechnology 40 (2021): 1138–1147. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00950-3.

Ho, G., Kubušová, V., Irabien, C., Li, V., Weinstein, A., Chawla, Sh., Yeung, D., Mershin, A., Zolotovsky, K., & Mogas-Soldevila, L. (2023). Multiscale Design of Cell-Free Biologically Active Architectural Structures. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11, 1125156. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1125156

c. Describe how your project is innovative and expand upon the significance of your final project.

This project explores how cell-free biosensors can be embedded into fabric as part of a design strategy for sensing and visualizing environmental change. While the sensing mechanisms for zinc and pH are based on existing research, the project focuses on how these tools can be integrated into textiles in ways that are spatially responsive, materially expressive, and scalable. It considers how biosensing might move beyond lab settings and become part of everyday or public environments, offering a roadmap for combining synthetic biology with environmental and wearable design.

3. Aims

For each aim:

1. Create an experimental plan for your final project by including specific methods/tools/technologies/biological concepts for each experiment/analysis step.
2. Present any results/validation of (a part of) your final project. Share what worked, what didn’t work, and why!