While satellite and sensor data have improved environment monitor systems, there’s still much the world cannot detect, but Fieldstone Bio is turning engineered microbes into powerful tools to deliver new insights about our environment.
Fieldstone Bio, founded in 2023, is pioneering environmental sensing through the reengineering of microbes as highly sophisticated sensors. Engineered microbes are designed to detect specific combinations in the environment, like nutrients in soil or toxic compounds, and signal their presence by changing color.
Applications of Synthetic Biology
Fieldstone Bio’s technology was born out of a question asked by co-founder Brandon Fields. “How do we take that and actually manipulate that to gain benefits for us?”
This question led to the creation of an IoT-based environment monitoring system. Fieldstone Bio is converting microbes into sensors that can detect specific environmental elements, such as soil nutrients or landmines. If these microbes’ sense what they’ve been programmed for, they respond by changing their color, sending a visual signal to detect environmental changes.
This innovation emerged at MIT app inventor, where Chris Voigt’s lab produced the idea of coding microbes to work as environment monitor.
“We isolate microbes from the environments we want to sense,” Fields said. Then encode them to detect particular compounds, for example, nitrogen in soil or TNT residues in landmine areas.
Monitors and Detects Changes in the Environment
Fieldstone Bio recently raised $5 million in seed funds to put its IoT environment monitoring system into the real world. After the microbes are created, drones will release them into the environment to monitor the area. Later, within hours or days, drones will snap pictures with a hyperspectral camera, an instrument that can dismember light into hundreds of colors.
This technology has important breakthroughs in various sectors:
- Agriculture: It is able to identify changes in soil with astounding accuracy, enabling better agricultural decisions.
- National Security: The technology is able to identify explosive traces, including TNT, in the presence of landmines, enabling safer landmine clearing.
- Environmental Protection: Development of sensors capable of identifying arsenic in water and soil is a gigantic leap in environmental pollution monitoring.
Moreover, Fieldstone Bio is developing arsenic sensors, which would be able to detect harmful polluters in the environment.
“Instead of going to do core soil samples over every 100 feet — and then you have 100-foot resolution — we could get a one-inch resolution and really map out exactly where they need to go clean up stuff,” CEO Patrick Stone said.
While monitoring the environment with synthetic biology technology may concern some, especially genetic modification, Fields ensures that the company is collaborating with the environment protection agency (EPA) to ensure all necessary regulations are being met.
From Engineered Microbes to Integrated IoT Systems
The current focus is on using engineered microbes for environment monitoring. Meanwhile, Fields envisions a future where environment monitoring system using IoT updates into a more integrated approach.
“Eventually, you don’t have to apply the microbe at all” Fields states.
He believes this system could eventually rely on drones, satellites, and airplanes to collect environmental data globally, eliminating the need for engineered microbes. This technological shift could bring us even closer to a seamless, real-time understanding of the environment on a global scale.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Tech sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.