What is XENOSENSE about?
XENOSENSE aims to develop a cell-free biosensor for toxicity testing, environmental monitoring, and risk assessment. In the XENOSENSE project, competencies in environmental toxicology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and structural biology will converge to make radical progress towards ecotoxicology and environmental health research, and also towards regulatory toxicology and the 3Rs of animal research (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement).
The project is located at the University of Bergen and started up in November 2023. The project has excellent partners in business and academia: STIM STIM TEAM | STIM, BioSense Laboratories Biosense Laboratories, and NTNU. Project lead is Odd André Karlsen, and they have 15 million NOK in NRC funding through 2026.
And what about ENIGMA?
ENIGMA plans to enable natural photonics through genetic manipulation of unicellular microalgae called diatoms. Photonics, the manipulation of light at nanoscale, is a key enabling technology with potential to address societal and global challenges. Photonic crystals (PhCs) are key components of photonic technologies facilitating light manipulation even in three dimensions; however, the nanofabrication procedures required are far from environmentally friendly and cost-effective. In this project, we will combine biotechnology and nanophotonics to obtain tailored bio-PhCs for two applications demanding high quality nanostructures: biosensing and photocatalytic platforms.
This project is located at NTNU, began its work in January 2024, and has partners in Spain and at NORCE. Tore Brembu is project lead, and they have 14 999 000 NOK funding from the Norwegian Research Council.