“…On the other hand, MWCBs employ whole bacterial cells, often genetically modified, as miniature reactors to quantify or qualify specific metabolites ( Gui et al., 2017 ). For instance, photogenic bacteria like Photobacterium mandapamensis have been employed to detect pathogens causing urinary tract infections (UTIs), such as E. coli , Proteus mirabilis , S. aureus , and C. albicans ( Reyes et al., 2020 ). In cases where bacteria aren’t naturally photogenic, they can be engineered to express reporter genes like luciferase and green fluorescence protein, generating bioluminescence upon the activation of targeted genes ( Martinez et al., 2019 ; Bazhenov et al., 2023 ).…”