Although continuous advances in theoretical modelling of Molecular Communications (MC) are observed, there is still an insuperable gap between theory and experimental testbeds, especially at the microscale. In this paper, the development of the first testbed incorporating engineered yeast cells is reported. Different from the existing literature, eukaryotic yeast cells are considered for both the sender and the receiver, with {\alpha}-factor molecules facilitating the information transfer. The use of such cells is motivated mainly by the well understood biological mechanism of yeast mating, together with their genetic amenability. In addition, recent advances in yeast biosensing establish yeast as a suitable detector and a neat interface to in-body sensor networks. The system under consideration is presented first, and the mathematical models of the underlying biological processes leading to an end-to-end (E2E) system are given. The experimental setup is then described and used to obtain experimental results which validate the developed mathematical models. Beyond that, the ability of the system to effectively generate output pulses in response to repeated stimuli is demonstrated, reporting one event per two hours. However, fast RNA fluctuations indicate cell responses in less than three minutes, demonstrating the potential for much higher rates in the future.

翻译：尽管分子通信（MC）理论建模领域持续取得进展，但理论与实验测试平台之间仍存在难以逾越的鸿沟，尤其是微尺度层面。本文报道了首个整合工程化酵母细胞的测试平台开发。与现有文献不同，我们选用真核酵母细胞作为发送端和接收端，利用α-因子分子实现信息传递。采用此类细胞主要基于酵母交配生物机制的充分认知及其遗传可塑性。此外，酵母生物传感领域的最新进展确立了其作为体内传感器网络中优良检测器与干净接口的定位。本文首先阐述所研究的系统，并给出由底层生物过程构成的端到端（E2E）系统数学模型。随后描述实验装置并用于获取实验结果，验证所开发数学模型的有效性。进一步地，我们证明了系统在重复刺激下有效生成输出脉冲的能力（每两小时产生一次事件）。然而，快速RNA波动表明细胞响应时间短于三分钟，展示了未来实现更高信号速率的潜力。