This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $479,864 to Iowa State University of Science and Technology to develop "Synthetic Phages for Identifying and Enumerating Strains (SPIES) of Bacterial Pathogens." The project aims to re-engineer bacteriophages as biosensors to precisely count specific pathogenic bacteria, addressing the challenge of foodborne illnesses that cause 1.35 million illnesses, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths annually in the U.S. The SPIES technology incorporates synthetic gene circuits into phage genomes to enable highly sensitive and specific detection of target bacteria like Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. The research will leverage advancements in synthetic biology and integrate a paper-based sensing platform to deliver a rapid, cost-effective, and user-friendly solution for pathogen enumeration. No sub-awards are planned under this grant, which has an award date of October 1, 2024 and an ultimate completion date of September 30, 2027.