Genetically Engineered Bacteria Etch Famous Faces Into a Petri Dish

By Natalie Avon Posted 09.21.2009 at 10:45 am 2 Comments

Shutterbugs Scientists project an image onto a dish of genetically modified E. coli. The bacteria on the edges of the light turn black and outline the shape in 14 hours. Jeff Tabor/University of California

Images of the Virgin Mary have appeared on grilled cheese sandwiches, trees and now in a petri dish. But that last appearance was no heavenly manifestation. It was a sign that Christopher Voigt’s photographic bacteria were working.

This summer, his team at the University of California at San Francisco injected light-sensing and communication genes from various bacterial species into Escherichia coli. Then he projected an image (anything from a circle to Alfred Hitchcock’s profile) onto a plate of the bacteria. Each cell senses if it’s in the light, and those in the dark secrete a chemical. The illuminated bacteria next to the shadowed cells detect that cue and turn black, creating a line-drawing copy.

Next, Voigt’s team will add color-sensing genes to E. coli so the bugs can make color images, a more complex step toward programming microorganisms to carry out useful jobs that require interpreting signals to make decisions. With the right combination of genes, scientists might one day be able to teach yeast to craft the perfect wine, or create “smart bacteria” that can be guided to kill cancer cells in the bloodstream, or instruct human cells to self-assemble into organs. “We don’t care how biology works normally,” Voigt says. “We want to get it to do unnatural things for us.”

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2 Comments

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king.of.losers

04/08/10 at 10:00 am

HMMM nice very nice so while you heal my busted kideny I could drink the finest wine, eat some great bread, all at the same time as haveing my picture taken by a pitre dish.
I wonder if thiss will lead to a bio computer, that would be very neat to have though I can't help but think of the problems of messing with the genome of bacteria. such some sort of super virus that takes your picture before it kills you.

ALL hail king of the losers

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ocalansacide

10/29/10 at 7:54 am

Following intensive debates about the nature of the operation, Afghan and NATO officials decided to implement a softer approach of civil-military efforts, by increasing targeted assaults against Taliban leaders and beginning reconstruction projects to win over local residents
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