{
  "id": 10435936,
  "title": "Biosynthetic Olfactory System from Multiplexed Engineered Microbes (BOSMEM)",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/biosynthetic-olfactory-system-from-multiplexed-engineered-microbes",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.25.753839v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The <source> material details the development of a biosynthetic olfactory system utilizing multiplexed engineered microbes, known as BOSMEM. Existing whole-cell biosensors struggle with multiplexed sensing, as separating sensor strains into individual reservoirs limits the number of analytes that can be monitored concurrently. Conversely, pooling strains in open co-culture allows faster-growing strains to dominate within days, leading to signal corruption.\n\nThe microfluidic mother machine, a device repurposed for this purpose, previously utilized for studying individual bacterial strains with single-cell resolution, is now employed to house multiple engineered biosensor strains simultaneously. Each biosensor strain operates independently within its own growth channel, ensuring continuous feeding and physical isolation.\n\nThe BOSMEM system reports chemical targets through a unique combination of three fluorescent proteins, resulting in seven distinguishable signals observable via only three optical channels. Characterization of the biosensors' turn-on and turn-off kinetics in this setup demonstrated that over a multi-day experiment involving repeated chemical exposures, the biosensors maintained their expected on/off state and population ratios. In contrast, biosensors subjected to open batch co-culture exhibited drifting signals and loss of reliability.\n\nThis research establishes the mother-machine-based multiplexing as a scalable approach to long-term chemical monitoring using living sensors, overcoming the limitations posed by traditional methods.",
  "summary": "Whole-cell biosensors can detect many types of chemicals in complex environments, but existing designs force a tradeoff in multiplexed sensing: separating sensor strains into individual reservoirs limits how many analytes can be monitored at once, while pooling strains in open co-culture lets faster-growing strains take over within days, corrupting the signal. The microfluidic \"mother machine\"…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}