TY - JOUR T1 - A microfluidic biodisplay JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/112110 SP - 112110 AU - Francesca Volpetti AU - Ekaterina Petrova AU - Sebastian J. Maerkl Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/02/112110.abstract N2 - Synthetically engineered cells are powerful and potentially useful biosensors, but it remains problematic to deploy such systems due to practical difficulties and biosafety concerns. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a microfluidic device that serves as an interface between an engineered cellular system, environment, and user. We created a biodisplay consisting of 768 individually programmable biopixels and demonstrated that it can perform multiplexed, continuous sampling. The biodisplay detected 10 µg/l sodium-arsenite in tap water using a research grade fluorescent microscope, and reported arsenic contamination down to 20 µg/l with an easy to interpret “skull and crossbones” symbol detectable with a low-cost USB microscope or by eye. The biodisplay was designed to prevent release of chemical or biological material to avoid environmental contamination. The microfluidic biodisplay thus provides a practical solution for the deployment and application of engineered cellular systems. ER -