Fieldstone Bio Harnesses Microbes to Detect Environmental Threats and More
Fieldstone Bio, a startup emerging from MIT, is pioneering the use of engineered microbes to sense a wide array of substances, from TNT to arsenic. This innovative approach could revolutionize environmental monitoring, agriculture, and national security. The company recently secured $5 million in seed funding, led by Ubiquity Ventures, to further develop and deploy its technology.
Founded in 2023, Fieldstone Bio leverages research from Chris Voigt’s lab at MIT, where scientists developed methods to program microbes as highly sensitive sensors. These microbes are engineered to change color upon encountering specific substances, offering a visual indication of their presence. Co-founder and Chief Science Officer Brandon Fields explained, “They’ve evolved to sense and respond to information. How do we take that and actually manipulate that to gain benefits for us?”
The core technology involves programming microbes to detect particular compounds, such as nitrogen levels in agricultural fields or TNT residue indicative of landmines. The process begins with isolating microbes from the target environment. “We isolate microbes from the environments we want to sense,” Fields stated. “We build our sensors, the DNA pieces, and we just drop them into these different ones and see which ones behave the best, which ones can last the longest.”
Deployment involves broadcasting the engineered microbes via drones. After a period of environmental interaction, typically hours to days, another drone equipped with a hyperspectral camera captures images of the area. These cameras divide light into hundreds of different colors, allowing for the detection of specific wavelengths reflected by the modified microbes.
The resulting images are analyzed using AI models to identify faint signals indicative of the target substance. “That’s where the power of AI comes in, because we can start using that information to tease out these really faint signals to produce really cool heat maps of the microbe sensing the environment,” Fields noted.
CEO Patrick Stone highlights the potential for detecting environmental contaminants. He notes, “Instead of going to do core soil samples over every 100 feet… we could get a one-inch resolution and really map out exactly where they need to go clean up stuff.” This high-resolution mapping can significantly improve the efficiency of environmental remediation efforts.
Fieldstone Bio is also keenly aware of potential concerns surrounding the use of gene-edited microbes in open environments. Fields emphasized that the company is working closely with the EPA to ensure compliance with all relevant regulations. The long-term vision involves creating a comprehensive database that correlates environmental signals with microbial data, potentially eliminating the need to deploy microbes altogether.
“Eventually, you don’t need to apply the microbe at all,” Fields said. “You have drones, planes, and satellites now collecting information about chemical information on a global scale.” This future could see widespread environmental monitoring conducted remotely and non-invasively.
