Safety
Our project is motivated by the fact that privacy and encryption in this era of connectivity are becoming increasingly important. The internet is not a secure platform to share delicate information. We aim to develop an alternative protocol to safely exchange sensitive data using genetically engineered bacteria. These bacteria are engineered to only grow given the correct stimuli, which can be in the form of light, nutrients or chemicals. This external signal will be conveyed into e.g. growth/ no growth or different colors employing optogenetic switches, antibiotic resistance and inducible promoters to name a few. Furthermore, false positives will add another layer of security making the message unreadable if mistreated. In the correct conditions, the bacteria will form the pattern of a QR code that encrypts the desired message.
