Technology Development

Development of milifluidic impedance biosensors to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA molecules from human samples.

We dreamt of phenotyping microbes and running evolution experiments with antibiotics at much higher-throughput, using many more strains and conditions than before. The solution had to be cheap, small, portable and accurate. So, with [**ERC**](https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/422425-a-low-cost-sensor-for-monitoring-drug-resistant-bacteria) funding, we set about leveraging low-cost robotics, adapting some LED lighting technology and using our own algorithm-building expertise to create the kind of device we wished we could buy.

Fisher suggested advantageous genes would spread through populations as a wave so we sought genetic waves in evolving populations, as follows. By fusing a fluorescent marker to a drug efflux protein (AcrB) whose expression provides _Escherichia coli_ …