Each year, thousands of people receive injury from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning. As carbon monoxide is a toxic, odorless gas, commercially available CO detectors change color and sound alarms in the presence of a dangerous accumulation. However, this warning mechanism is useless for the blind and deaf. Our project aims to create a carbon monoxide sensor that can give a fragrance to this odorless gas.

We introduced a carbon monoxide-sensing mechanism and a wintergreen fragrance pathway into E. coli so that in the presence of carbon monoxide, our engineered bacteria will emit a wintergreen smell. With a CO-induced Wintergreen pathway, we hope to provide working carbon monoxide sensor useful for the general public, but especially for the disabled for which regular CO alarms are not a viable option.