Creating a copper biosensor based on E. coli Cu-sensitive element and bacteriophage lysogenity control system

In our iGEM project, we created a copper biosensor that detects copper ions in growing media. To make our sensor more robust, we intended to supplement it with a threshold device that can provide the response on an "all or nothing" basis, when the copper level exceeds critical concentration. So, our project falls into two distinct parts. The first part is a copper-responsive element that converts a measured copper level to a "polymerizations per second" signal. The second part is a threshold device with hysteresis (a Schmitt trigger), that is designed as an individual part, so that it may be used with any input. In the creation of a copper-responsive element, we relied on a natural system of E. coli which senses the extracellular copper level.