(July 16, 2015) Forget the Vulcan mind-meld of the Star Trek
generation — as far as mind control techniques go, bacteria is the next frontier.
In a paper published today in Scientific Reports, which is
part of the Nature Publishing Group, a Virginia Tech scientist used a
mathematical model to demonstrate that bacteria can control the behavior of an
inanimate device like a robot.
“Basically we were trying to find out from the mathematical
model if we could build a living microbiome on a nonliving host and control the
host through the microbiome,” said Warren Ruder, an assistant professor of
biological systems engineering in both the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences and the College of Engineering.
"We found that robots may indeed be able to function
with a bacterial brain,” he said.
For future experiments, Ruder is building real-world robots
that will have the ability to read bacterial gene expression levels in E. coli
using miniature fluorescent microscopes. The robots will respond to bacteria he
will engineer in his lab.
On a broad scale, understanding the biochemical sensing
between organisms could have far reaching implications in ecology, biology, and
robotics.
In agriculture, bacteria-robot model systems could enable
robust studies that explore the interactions between soil bacteria and
livestock. In healthcare, further understanding of bacteria’s role in
controlling gut physiology could lead to bacteria-based prescriptions to treat
mental and physical illnesses. Ruder also envisions droids that could execute
tasks such as deploying bacteria to remediate oil spills.
The findings also add to the ever-growing body of research
about bacteria in the human body that are thought to regulate health and mood,
and especially the theory that bacteria also affect behavior.
The study was inspired by real-world experiments where the
mating behavior of fruit flies was manipulated using bacteria, as well as mice
that exhibited signs of lower stress when implanted with probiotics.
Ruder’s approach revealed unique decision-making behavior by
a bacteria-robot system by coupling and computationally simulating widely
accepted equations that describe three distinct elements: engineered gene
circuits in E. coli, microfluid bioreactors, and robot movement.