The skin on a turkey’s head shifts in color from red to blue to white because of bundles of collagen interspersed with blood vessels. As the vessels swell or contract when a turkey gets mad or excited, the collagen fibers change and that impacts how light waves are scattered and thus changes the colors of the bird’s head.
Researchers used this information to develop the iColour Analyser, a mobile app that copies the color-changing ability of the turkey to create biosensors that can detect dangerous chemicals. The sensors were developed from bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) that act as the collagen fibers do in the skin of a turkey. This feature allows it to detect toxins or airborne pathogens.
These sensors are easier to read than traditional biosensors, more convenient and cheaper to make.
“In our lab we study how light is generated and changes in nature, and then we use what we learn to engineer novel devices,” UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering Seung-Wuk Lee said in a statement.
“Our system is convenient and is cheap to make. We also showed that this technology can be adapted so that smartphones can help analyze the color fingerprint of the target chemical,” Lee said. “In the future, we could potentially use this same technology to create a breath test to detect cancer and other diseases.”
