Abstracts

Landmines and explosive remnants of war pose a global humanitarian problem which claims numerous casualties long after the conflict has ended. Current approaches for the location of landmines, such as metal detection, which require physical presence at the minefield, involve high risk to personnel; these methods are also costly, time consuming, and have a high rate of false positive results. No currently viable technology allows the remote detection of buried explosive devices. A possible solution may be provided by the use of genetically engineered E. coli strains, molecularly “tailored” to emit a bioluminescent signal in the presence of trace explosives escaping for the landmine and accumulating in the soil above it. The emitted bioluminescence then serves to generate a physical map of the mines' location. The optical signal emitted by the sensor bacteria in response to the presence of trace explosives in the soil below them is imaged and quantified by one of two means: (a) Imaging from a remote location, such as by a drone; (b) A network of bioelectronic modules, incorporating the sensor bacteria and harboring all the necessary electronics and optics. The latter system will be described, along with the synthetic biology approaches employed that significantly enhanced the major performance parameters: higher signal intensity, faster response time, and lower detection threshold of the target explosives.