1A What would your synthetic cell do? What is the input and what is the output.
I am somewhat of a skincare junkie and therefore very interested in elements that compromise skin health, such as photoaging. The central driver of photoaging is UV light (1). Depending on the wavelength, UV-light affects other processes within the skin; UV-B (280 – 320 nm) only penetrates to the epidermis and upper dermis, mostly contributing to sun burns and cutaneous oncogenesis (1), whereas UV-A (320 nm – 400 nm) penetrates subcutaneous layers and has been implicated to contribute to photoaging**(2)**.
Therefore measuring UV-light to determiene the intensity and thus damaging effects might help to determine the optimal protective measures, such as sunscreen or protective wear. However, UV-meters are very expensive, with a price point between ~100$ and 500$.
In this exercise I would like to explore whether one can develop an organic UV-meter.
The input would be UV light, both UV-A and UV-B, and their intensity. A specific fluorescent (or otherwise visible) reporter is expressed depending on the intensity of the respective UV-wavelength.
1B Could this function be realized by cell free systems alone, without encapsulation?
I want to incorporate the function into hardware, therefore encapsulation will be necessary for protection.
1C Could this function be realized by genetically modified natural cell?
Yes, although cell replication and biocontainment might become a problem.
1D Describe the desired outcome of your synthetic cell operation.