Although it sounds like science fiction, the U.S. military hopes that common marine microorganisms might be genetically engineered to detect enemy submarines, underwater vessels, and even divers.
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is researching engineered organisms such as Marinobacter, which could be modified to react to certain substances such as metals, fuel exhaust or human DNA left by enemy vessels, divers, or equipment.
“In an engineered context, we might take the ability of the microbes to give up electrons, then use [those electrons] to talk to something like an autonomous vehicle,” said NRL researcher Sarah Glaven. “Then you can start imagining that you can create an electrical signal when the bacteria encounters some molecule in their environment,”
Glaven believes the research is about a year away from providing concrete evidence that she can engineer reactions in abundant marine life forms that could prove useful for the military.
“The reason we think we can accomplish this is because we have this vast database of info we’ve collected from growing these natural systems. So after experiments where we look at switching gene potential, gene expression, regulatory networks, we are finding these sensors,” said Glaven.
The Applied Research for the Advancement of Science and Technology Priorities Program on Synthetic Biology for Military Environments is aimed at giving researchers the tools they need to engineer genetic responses into organisms that would be useful for the military.
“We want to move synthetic biology from the laboratory to the field. That’s a big thrust of ours and so there’s a lot of tool development in order to do that,” said Dimitra Stratis-Cullum, who leads the biomaterials team at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations said the United States, and the Navy in particular, is investing heavily in synthetic biology to better compete with China, an emerging synthetic-biotechnology powerhouse.
