Project
"I’m like a bio-brick I can be used anywhere, but I work best in the iGEM environment." - Antonio Vela-Gartner
We have developed a glutamate biosensor. Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. However, excessive concentrations of glutamate can cause serious deleterious effects, including limbic seizures, amnesia, and brain damage. Our aim is to produce a biosensor that can be used to monitor the secretion of glutamate by neurons grown from stem cells in vitro. This biosensor would consist of a bacterial cell line capable of fluorescing in response to extracellular glutamate.