Team:LASATX

Home	Team	Project & Design	Protocols	Results	Parts	Notebook	Safety	Attributions

Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School

Each year, thousands of people are injured from unintentional carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. When inhaled, CO causes anoxia, a severe deprivation of oxygen to the brain and blood, leading to other cognitive impairments. As this toxic, odorless gas can be produced by fuel-emmitiing vehicles or kitchen appliances, CO detectors are essential in every domestic and industrial setting.

Most commercially available CO detectors change color and sound alarms in the presence of a danger accumulation. However, while this may provide protection to some, we wanted to extend this system of defense to those who might not benefit from this mechanism (e.g. the blind and deaf). Our project aims to create a CO sensor that can give a fragrance to this odorless gas, warning those nearby through their sense of smell.

We introduced a carbon monoxide-sensing mechanism and a wintergreen fragrance pathway into E. coli so that in the presence of CO, our engineered bacteria will emit a wintergreen smell. With a CO-induced wintergreen pathway, we hope to provide a working CO sensor that is useful not only to the general public but especially to those who find current CO sensors impractical.