Developing Biosensors for Earth System Science

Microbes can be programmed via synthetic biology to report on their behavior, alerting researchers when they have participated in key biogeochemical processes (e.g. denitrification or cell-cell communication) or when their immediate environment has passed a particular physical threshold (e.g. a microbial-scale change in soil water conditions).  This use of synthetic biology has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of microbes’ roles in N, C, and water cycling; however, synthetic microbes have not yet seen wide laboratory use in to study environmental processes because synthetic organisms typically report by fluorescing, making their signals difficult to detect outside the petri dish. We are developing a new suite of biosensors that report instead by releasing easily-detected gases, allowing the real-time, noninvasive monitoring of microbial behavior in soils, sediments, and other complex environmental matrices like marine snow.

We are interested in applying these new microbial tools to a number of problems, ranging from horizontal gene transfer through microbial communication to cryptic element cycling in soils and marine sediments.  Is there a problem you think would be great for a biosensor?  Let us know!  We're always looking for new collaborations.

Current Projects

Dr. Carolyn Cornell

Dr. Cornell received her Ph.D. in microbiology and is currently studying the importance of soil microbes in the nitrogen cycle. In the Masiello lab, she is researching how carbon solids as agricultural soil amendments potentially impact microbes driving nitrogen transformations in soil. By using model nitrogen-cycling bacteria, Carolyn is looking at how microbial growth and gene expression is impacted by the addition of zero-valent carbon, a carbon solid produced during methane pyrolysis. Her research has broader applications to agricultural science as her research aims to determine whether zero-valent carbon could reduce nitrous oxide emissions produced through agriculture soil management.

Li Chieh Lu

Li Chieh is pursuing his PhD in biochemistry and cell biology, and is being co-advised by Dr. Masiello and Dr. Joff Silberg. In the Masiello lab, he is currently researching possible applications of gas-output microbial sensors in different soil conditions. Some of Li Chieh's work includes engineering microbes to change the promoters regulating expression of different reporter genes and constructing synthetic soil habitats to use as environments for these microbes. Li Chieh’s research with bioengineered microbes has broad applications in agricultural and climate science.

Swetha Sridhar

Swetha is pursuing their PhD in Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology (SSPB) at Rice, and is co-advised by Dr. Masiello and Dr. Caroline Ajo-Franklin. Within the Masiello lab, her research focuses on soil microbes and microbe-mineral interactions. Swetha is hoping to understand how carbon is preserved in soils, and how fluctuations in soil qualities affect microbe-mineral interactions. She is working on the bottom-up engineering of microbe-mineral interactions.