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Detecting Chemical Weapons with Nano-Scale Sensors August 2007
A new front in the effort to protect civilian populations has opened at MITRE's biotechnology labs: a research project in synthetic biology that aims to create sensors able to detect odorless, tasteless, colorless, but deadly, poisons in the water or air—from thousands of miles away. A relatively new discipline, "synthetic biology" combines facets of the life sciences, engineering, and computer science. For a little more than a year, researchers and lab technicians in MITRE's Emerging Technologies Office have been developing the computational tools for the design of biologic systems at the genome, protein, and system levels. Their goal is to design protein receptors that can be used to detect small molecules associated with the production of chemical weapons. Man-Made Protein Sensors The main focus of the research is the creation of a sense-and-respond system for the remote detection of chemical weapons production. The sensors are actually proteins that have had their three-dimensional shape reconfigured so that they will bind to particular molecules—in this case, those that make up poisons such as the lethal nerve gas VX. Though it is not being tested as part of this project, it is believed that the proteins can be attached to nano-scale wires about the size of an atom, which react when they bind to target chemicals, emitting an electric signal that can be seen on an electronic display anywhere in the world. The MITRE researchers' work is at the sub-cellular level and involves re-engineering and thereby redesigning the very structure of the proteins according to carefully calibrated designs based on algebraic computations. Using special software tools, the scientists work out the computations for the design, then produce and test them in MITRE's biolab. A System That Will Stay Ahead of Threats The difference between each of the designs is minute, and the permutations of the designs' dimensions are in the hundreds of billions. Given the amount of time involved in this process, which can take months, one might wonder: How will researchers stay ahead of determined criminals who can simply change the chemical weapons they use?
"We're creating a system, a process, that will allow us to do this much faster." says John Dileo, a senior artificial intelligence engineer and principal investigator on the project. "It's a computational design process that has the potential to reduce the time for creating a new protein down to a day or less. So eventually, we'll be able to run faster than the bad guys. We're also developing an open-source Web service that integrates all of the tools that we are currently using," he says. Once the design process has been firmly established, MITRE will collaborate with outside organizations to refine and perfect various parts of the system. Right now, the application is for water-based chemicals. This is because proteins need water to make them dissolve and grip. What's more, most of the facilities capable of producing VX have waste pools and run-off water that would contain the chemicals indicating production of the poison. "But eventually we will also be able to produce sensors that work in the air," says Dileo, suggesting that these new sensors could detect air borne poisons such as Sarin gas. Detecting Toxic Waste, Diseases, Poisons, and More What else is envisioned for the future of this research project? The design, fabrication, and testing of biologic circuits and their parts, the production of fluorescent proteins that can be used as "outputs" of biologic sensor systems, and the integration of protein and DNA elements into a single system. According to Steve Huffman, MITRE vice president and chief technology officer, synthetic biology is an important new area for the company. "In addition to addressing the important national problem of detecting chemical warfare agents that can be used as weapons, John's project is building our experience in an important emerging field," he says. "Synthetic biology is the life-sciences equivalent of computer-aided design of large-scale integrated circuits. In fact, it promises to have an even greater impact on our world." Although it was begun to aid MITRE's present sponsors, who are concerned with national security, this sense-and-respond project has several other possible applications. In addition to the detection of chemical weapons, there's the potential for detecting toxic wastes, diseases, and biological hazards of various kinds. And there may be other applications as well—perhaps as many as there are proteins to be designed. —by Faye Elkins Related Information Articles and News
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