Miguel Jimenez Featured in The Brink
Dr. Miguel Jimenez was featured in The Brink for developing sensory devices integrating synthetic biology and microelectronics. His aim is to engineer cells to be biological sensors that monitor conditions in environments like soil or the human body.
In his lab, el Microbial Integration Group (elMIG), Jimenez recruits from a variety of specialties, including biomedical, material science, and electrical engineering. Together, his team develops monitoring devices that minimize time and cost in how we track conditions today, which is typically by sending samples to a lab.
These monitoring devices work by using cells that emit light when in the presence of some environmental condition, and wirelessly sending that data to a computer. A current challenge in this endeavor is keeping the electrical and cellular components of these sensors stable outside of laboratory conditions.
Jimenez’s work has applications in agriculture and human health. Small and numerously spread sensors can measure soil and help farmer’s decide which plants to put more resources towards. In humans, monitoring devices could lessen the frequency of blood drawls.
“In 10-20 years, the dream is really to have many examples of these sensors available for monitoring our world in ways we can’t do now because the machines to do it today are the size of a refrigerator, and we’re trying to make it the size of a blueberry,” he tells The Brink.
Read and watch a video about Jimenez’s work here.