Inspired by computer science, our goal is to implement the Perceptron, a computational algorithm that is the basis of Artificial Neural Networks in a biological circuit. Two bacterial populations, the senders and the receivers, will be engineered to chemically communicate with each other, creating a network. Senders will recognize external input patterns in a weighted manner, by producing different amounts of a quorum sensing molecule. Then, receivers will respond to the final concentration of this molecule if a specific threshold is surpassed, triggering the synthesis of a fluorescent protein.
Our proposing system aims to achieve complex sensing capabilities by separating simple sensing tasks in different subpopulations of a cell population. We are offering a new perspective in the biosensing field and transfer this ideation from a bacterial population to the cooperation of multiple ones.