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Jan.
13, 2003 |
What's Purple and Turquoise and Deadly All
Over?
A stand of turquoise trees? A field of purple
grass? Not far in the future, nature could be the best warning
system for bioterrorism if Jonathan Dordick can harness enzymes
to do the bidding.
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Artist's illustration of
enzyme-treated vegetation reacting with color change to
a biological agent.
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Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann '42 Professor
of Chemical Engineering at Rensselaer, is using enzymes to prepare
uniquely pigmented compounds that could be implanted into any
materials to indicate the presence of biological and chemical
agents, such as anthrax, smallpox, and mustard gas.
Using nature's cues, Dordick mimics the biochemical
reactions that produce naturally occurring pigments. He then can
isolate, manipulate, and control the activity of the enzymes to
engineer colors not found in nature. The new enzymatic formulas
that trigger the novel colors would be incorporated in a variety
of bacteria and microorganisms.
These organisms will act as cellular "sentinels."
Contact with certain pathogens will trigger a color change and
alert humans of contamination. "Sentinel" cells can
be interwoven in various materials to create any number of biosensors.
For example, the leaves of a pine tree implanted
with the engineered enzymes might turn turquoise when it comes
into contact with airborne anthrax.
"The end result is the discovery of a wide
range of novel colored or fluorescent compounds and a 'roadmap'
of enzymatic reactions that are necessary to generate these compounds,"
Dordick says. "The need for a novel pigment with properties
not found in nature is to ensure that natural colors do not interfere
with the identification and location of dangerous pathogens."
Dordick's work, in collaboration with researchers
at the University of Minnesota researchers, is part of a $1.25
million federal project called Biological Input Output Systems
(BIOS), funded through the Defense Advancement Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). The initiative is to develop fast, highly sensitive,
and specific biosensor systems to detect biological warfare agents,
such as anthrax or smallpox.
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