Yeast-based biosensors for the specific and accessible detection of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance
Environment
Surveillance
- Geir Klinkenberg, SINTEF - Applied research, technology and innovation, Norway (Coordinator)
- Verena Siewers, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden (Partner)
- Alicja Kuch, National Medicines Institute, Poland (Partner)
The diffusion of antimicrobial-resistant strains is a major worldwide problem that afflicts many nations and in particular low and medium-income countries. The most dangerous antimicrobial-resistant pathogens belong to the ESKAPE group (i.e. Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species). The scope of this project is to develop a cellular biosensor based on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These yeasts cells are modified to be able to express engineered receptors (GPCRs) that can detect the presence of specific peptides which are tightly connected to the presence of a specific pathogen. Upon recognition of these pathogen-identifier peptides, the receptor triggers a chemical reaction that culminates with the production of pigment visible to the naked eye. The presence of the red pigment is a clear indication that we are in the presence of a specimen infected by a carbapenemase-producing strain.