Regulating population density through antithetic feedback control of cell growth

Abstract

We present a genetic feedback control strategy enabling engineered microorganisms to self-regulate their population density. Our approach leverages a quorum sensing mechanism for the production of a growth inhibitor protein, whose activation is regulated by an embedded antithetic controller. Through mathematical modeling and steady-state analysis, we provide design guidelines to tune the control parameters. Finally, we validate the control architecture performance and robustness via realistic agent-based simulations in BSim. The proposed control architecture guarantees robust regulation of the cell density while relying on fewer constraints on the biological parameters with respect to other solutions presented in the literature.