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Engineered swarmbots rely on peers for survival
Duke University researchers have engineered microbes that can't run away from home; those that do will quickly die without protective proteins produced by their peers.
Dubbed "swarmbots" for their ability to survive in a crowd, the system could be used as a safeguard to stop genetically modified organisms from escaping into the surrounding environment. The approach could also be used to reliably program colonies of bacteria to respond to changes in their surrounding environment, such as releasing specific molecules on cue.
The system is described online February 29, 2016, in Molecular Systems Biology.
"Safety has always been a concern when modifying bacteria for medical applications because of the danger of uncontrolled proliferation," said Lingchong You, the Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Engineering at Duke University.
"Other labs have addressed this issue by making cells rely on unnatural amino acids for survival or by introducing a 'kill switch' that is activated by some chemical," You said. "Ours is the first example that uses collective survival as a way of intrinsically realizing this safeguard."
In the experiment, You and his colleagues engineered a non-pathogenic strain of E. coli to produce a chemical called AHL. They also modified the cells so that, in high enough concentrations, AHL causes them to produce an antidote to antibiotics. When the population of E. coli is dense enough, the antidote keeps them alive, even in the presence of antibiotics that would otherwise kill them.
The researchers then confined a sufficiently large number of the bacteria to a capsule and bathed it in antibiotics. As long as the E. coli remained inside their container where their density was high, they all survived. But if individual bacteria escaped, they were quickly killed off by the antibiotic. (See Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvaQ8s25XwE&feature=youtu.be)
While this specific example would not work in general environments without the antibiotic present, You says that the experiments are a proof of concept. The concept can be applied to other circuits that can implement collective survival in one or multiple populations.
"In general, this concept does not depend on the use of antibiotics," said You. "There are multiple directions we are hoping to follow with this platform. We're using non-pathogenic E. coli, but we hope to demonstrate that the same concept can be established with a probiotic strain of bacteria."
"We can imagine programming probiotics that can respond to changes in their environmental conditions," said Shuqiang Huang, a postdoctoral associate in You's lab. "That response could include delivering proteins or chemicals to modulate the microbiome."
Another way to take advantage of the technology would be to insert a contained population of bacteria that could help the body respond to intruders.
"We want to program cells to respond to signals produced by pathogenic bacteria," said Anna Lee, a graduate student in You's lab, who plans to pursue this line of research for her doctoral thesis. "We could inhibit their virulence and attack them at the same time."
"This is the foundation," said You. "Once we've established the platform, then we have the freedom to introduce whatever proteins we choose and allow these cells to engage in many different applications."
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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (CBET?0953202), the National Institutes of Health (R01GM098642R01GM110494), the Army Research Office (W911NF?14?1?0490) and a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship.
"Coupling spatial segregation with synthetic circuits to control bacterial survival." Shuqiang Huang, Anna Lee, Ryan Tsoi, Feilun Wu, Ying Zhang, Kam Leong, and Lingchong You. Molecular Systems Biology, Online Feb. 29, 2016. DOI: 10.15252/msb.20156567
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/du-esr022916.php
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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