First-of-its-kind nanosensor for real-time iron detection in plants

Added on 28 March 2025

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First-of-its-kind nanosensor for real-time iron detection in plants

DiSTAP researchers develop sensors for rapid iron detection and monitoring in plants, enabling precision agriculture and sustainable crop management. Credit: SMART DiSTAP

This innovation enables real-time, non-destructive iron tracking within plant tissues across different plant species, optimising plant nutrient management, reducing fertiliser waste, and improving crop health.

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) interdisciplinary research group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have developed a groundbreaking near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanosensor capable of simultaneously detecting and differentiating between iron forms – Fe(II) and Fe(III) – in living plants.