LumaManta — Programmable Biosensing for Water Monitoring

2025 iGEM 2025 Chen Lab Silver Medal iGEM synthetic biology optogenetics

Technical Lead, ZJU-China · PIs: Prof. Ming Chen & Prof. Fan Yang

Wiki Code

Background

Monitoring water for pollutants and environmental DNA (eDNA) usually means collecting samples and sending them to a lab. An all-in-one device that senses in real time has to solve a harder problem than any single biosensor does: one platform needs to report on several different targets without carrying a separate genetic circuit for each.

Method

As Technical Lead I coordinated a 14-member interdisciplinary team spanning wet lab, dry lab, hardware, and software.

The core of the design is BiChromaLogic, a light-controlled genetic circuit built on CRISPR-based logic gates. It takes 2 light inputs and converts them into 4 distinct sensor proteins on demand — so the device can be reprogrammed for a target by changing illumination rather than by rebuilding the biology.

Tools and techniques: CRISPR-i/a, optogenetics, confocal microscopy, Python, R, GROMACS, AlphaFold3.

Genetic circuit

Optogenetic logic circuit design.
Optogenetic logic circuit design.

Wet lab

Wet lab design.
Wet lab design.

Modelling

Model design.
Model design.
Molecular design and kinetic modelling.
Molecular design and kinetic modelling.
Dispersion and device-level simulation of the strand-replacing reaction.
Dispersion and device-level simulation of the strand-replacing reaction.
Environment and system behaviour.
Environment and system behaviour.

Detection module

DNA immobilisation.
DNA immobilisation.

Hardware

Device hardware.
Device hardware.
Device hardware, continued.
Device hardware, continued.

Results

  • Circuit performance: 169% activation and 92% repression efficiency across the logic gates.
  • Competition outcome: Silver Medal at iGEM 2025 as ZJU-China.
  • The work also became the basis of an eDNA-based aquatic pathogen detection entry that took a Gold Medal at Zhejiang University’s 18th “Dandelion” Undergraduate Innovation Competition.
Progress on aTF reprogramming.
Progress on aTF reprogramming.
Detection model results.
Detection model results.

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