Fieldstone Bio, a startup that grew out of an MIT lab, is developing genetically modified microbes that change color when exposed to trinitrotoluene, arsenic, or nitrogen, and launching them using drones and artificial intelligence.
Fieldstone Bio, a startup that grew out of an MIT lab, is developing genetically modified microbes that change color when exposed to trinitrotoluene, arsenic, or nitrogen, and launching them using drones and artificial intelligence.
According to TechCrunch, the company has raised $5 million to develop the technology from Ubiquity Ventures and plans to conduct its first field trials next month. Scientists have trained natural strains of bacteria to change color in the presence of target compounds — from nutrients in the soil to traces of explosives.
Fieldstone Bio was founded in 2023 based on research by Professor Chris Voight at MIT. The startup combined genetic engineering, drone technology, and AI analytics to create a new class of remote ecosensors with broad applications in agricultural and environmental monitoring, as well as in the field of national security.
When studying this technology, a completely logical question arises: how to record this reaction from afar?
«Microbes perform trillions of biochemical calculations every second,» explains co-founder and chief scientist Brandon Fields. «We’re just adding the ability to see their reactions from the air.»
Fieldstone is already testing sensors to detect nitrogen in fields, TNT in landfills and arsenic near industrial sites. CEO Patrick Stone adds that accuracy can be as low as one inch, replacing a sparse system of manual soil testing.
The company is in talks with the EPA to meet environmental and biosafety requirements. Over time, it wants to amass a huge database so that AI models can learn to reconstruct signals without the involvement of microbes. «In the future, drones, planes or satellites will record the chemical composition of the environment themselves without deploying living sensors,» Fields says.
As a reminder, our news feed also featured a story about tiny water robots that monitor water quality and are safe for fish. The robots, developed by Swiss scientists, look like motorboats.
