Micronutrient deficiencies are a significant healthcare concern across the globe. Significant even in some developed nations, micronutrient deficiencies are more severe in the developing world and locally in the wake of major disasters. These conditions, though easily treated, remain a problem because they are often difficult to recognize and diagnose, requiring lab tests that are prohibitively expensive in both material and human resources for those in developing or remote areas. As obligate consumers of the same micronutrients, bacteria possess cellular machinery to control intracellular micronutrient levels and have corresponding regulatory mechanisms to respond to varying concentrations in their environment. We are developing a novel medical test based on bacterial sensors using designed genetic circuitry to direct existing or minimally engineered cellular machinery to trigger specific changes in color in response to defined micronutrient levels. Such a test would be cheap, requiring no complex equipment and minimal medical training to administer and interpret. This would obviate the logistical problem of laboratory access and sample transport in remote and low-resource environments, allowing on-site diagnosis of micronutrient deficiencies in the populations most at risk.
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