Rice University researchers unveiled electroactive co-culture sensing (e-COSENS), a modular bioelectrical sensor system designed to convert chemical signals into electricity. The technology uses engineered microbial co-cultures to generate an electronic readout in response to environmental analytes, aiming to overcome limitations of earlier whole-cell bioelectronic sensors. The modular design—paired with a focus on flexible integration—targets applications in environmental and health monitoring where compact sensing with rapid, real-time interpretation is difficult. The advance also adds to the growing toolkit of bioelectronic platforms built for scalable sensing without traditional electronics-only chemistry workflows.