Microbial fuel cell (MFCS) based biosensors, as a new alternative means of pollutant detection, have the advantages of miniaturization, simple operation, and low cost. As a low-power field sensing tool, synthetic biomodified MFC biosensors have great potential for system design and engineering applications in the electrochemical field. By combining different promoters and voltage output elements to design "and" and "OR" circuit logic gates, modular genetic elements can be used to customize biosensors for the analysis of various or multiple target contaminants. Therefore, the combination of synthetic biology and engineering will further expand the potential of MFC biosensors to detect specific substrates.

E. coli BL21 gene engineering to express RibB and operation radio frequency combined with zinc sensitive promoter PzntR, PzntR can synthesize porin, sense zinc ions, produce riboflavin, and promote electron transport. Porins increased the cell membrane permeability of engineered bacteria. By applying engineered bacteria to microbial fuel cell (MFC) biosensors, we have created a microbial sensor for detecting zinc contamination with a simple detection process suitable for real-time monitoring.

Based on our microbial sensor model for heavy metal contamination, future IGEM teams could replace our copper-sensitive promoters with other matter-sensitive promoters, enabling engineered bacteria to respond to different heavy metal ions or other contaminants in sewage. Using microbial fuel cell (MFC) biosensors with different engineered strains, we created different microbial sensors for the detection of heavy metal contamination or other pollutants.