Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Remote detection of buried landmines using a bacterial sensor

Nature Biotechnology volume 35, pages 308–310 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Access to this article via Institution of Civil Engineers Library is not available.

Change institution
Buy or subscribe

To the Editor:

Finding where landmines and improvised explosive devices are buried remains risky. Currently, landmines are detected by personnel in the field using methods that, in principle, have remained largely unaltered for the past 75 years. The obvious risks to life that this poses, the large proportion of false-positive identifications, as well as an extremely limited ability to detect non-metallic landmines, means that a need exists for alternative methods for detecting landmines from a safe standoff distance. Here we report a small-scale field trial that uses a bacterial biosensor for the remote detection of anti-personnel mines.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Access to this article via Institution of Civil Engineers Library is not available.

Change institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Optical scanning system and alginate-encapsulated bacterial sensors.
Figure 2: Remote fluorescence map of the target site.

References

  1. Burlage, R.S., Patek, D.R. & Everman, K.R. US patent 5,972,638 (1999).

  2. Leggett, D.C., Jenkins, T.F. & Murrmann, R.P. Composition of vapors evolved from military TNT as influenced by temperature, solid composition, age, and source. Special Report No. CRREL-SR-77-16 (US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1977).

  3. MacDonald, J. et al. Alternatives for landmine detection. Report No. RAND/MR-1608-OSTP (RAND Corp., Santa Monica, California, 2003).

  4. Fischer, R., Burlage, R., DiBenedetto, J. & Maston, M. Army AL&T. July–August 2000, pp. 10–12.

  5. Jenkins, T.F. et al. Analysis of explosives-related signature chemicals in soil samples collected near buried landmines. Technical Report No. ERDC TR-00-5. (US Army Corps of Engineers, 2000).

  6. Yagur-Kroll, S. et al. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 98, 885–895 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yagur-Kroll, S., Amiel, E., Rosen, R. & Belkin, S. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 99, 7177–7188 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Palevsky, N., Shemer, B., Connolly, J.P.R. & Belkin, S. Front. Microbiol. 22, 1490 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kabessa, Y. et al. Biosens. Bioelectron. 49, 394–398 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kabessa, Y. et al. Biosens. Bioelectron. 79, 784–788 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Nussinovitch, A. Polymer Macro- And Micro-Gel Beads: Fundamentals And Applications (Springer, New York; 2010).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Shimshon Belkin & Sharon Yagur-Kroll

  2. Applied Physics and the Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yossef Kabessa, Victor Korouma, Tali Septon, Yonatan Anati & Aharon J Agranat

  3. Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

    Cheinat Zohar-Perez, Zahi Rabinovitz & Amos Nussinovitch

Authors
  1. Shimshon Belkin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sharon Yagur-Kroll
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yossef Kabessa
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Victor Korouma
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tali Septon
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yonatan Anati
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Cheinat Zohar-Perez
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Zahi Rabinovitz
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Amos Nussinovitch
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Aharon J Agranat
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shimshon Belkin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Methods (PDF 396 kb)

Supplementary Code 1

Matlab algorithm files (analyzeData.rar) (ZIP 4 kb)

Supplementary Code 2

Matlab algorithm files (mappingAndLocation.rar) (ZIP 2 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Belkin, S., Yagur-Kroll, S., Kabessa, Y. et al. Remote detection of buried landmines using a bacterial sensor. Nat Biotechnol 35, 308–310 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3791

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3791

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research