Methane production from farmed cows is a major contributor to emissions.  We decided to build a biosensor to detect methanol since it is part of the methane consumption pathway. Our goal was to use Escherichia coli as a chassis (which uses the lux operon to glow in the presence of methanol). We used a chimeric histidine kinase (CHK) to promote a phosphorylation cascade that induces luxCDABEG expression