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Cell-Free Biosensors: Synthetic Biology Without Borders

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Handbook of Cell Biosensors

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Abstract

Cell-free biosensors can take many forms and can range in complexity from single enzymes to engineered systems of biological components that support synthetic biology applications. This chapter will review the many recent innovations from this latter category and will explore how these more complex systems create synthetic networks to provide biosensors with signal amplification, programmability, high sensitivity, and even tolerance for analyte variation. In particular, cell-free biosensors that operate using isothermal amplification, coupled transcription and translation systems, and CRISPR-related mechanisms will be highlighted. Such DNA-/RNA-based technologies are an especially exciting category for cell-free biosensing, and here this rapidly evolving class of sensors, including toehold switch- and CRISPR-based systems, will be reviewed. Cell-free biosensors are also increasingly designed with companion hardware, and, in doing so, researchers are embedding the capacity for these otherwise laboratory-based reactions to be deployed in real-world applications. Among many innovations, this chapter will highlight how freeze-dried and paper-based systems, low-cost optical readers, and lateral flow devices are helping extend the reach of cell-free biosensors into new environments and applications. Taken together, the use of cell-free synthetic biology and engineered biochemical systems is an exciting category of biosensing and is on track to make significant contributions toward decentralizing the capacity for sensing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Aidan Tinafar & Keith Pardee

  2. Biodesign Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics, The Biodesign Institute and the School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Yu Zhou, Fan Hong, Kirstie L. Swingle, Anli A. Tang & Alexander A. Green

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  1. Aidan Tinafar
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  2. Yu Zhou
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  3. Fan Hong
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  4. Kirstie L. Swingle
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  5. Anli A. Tang
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  6. Alexander A. Green
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  7. Keith Pardee
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Correspondence to Alexander A. Green or Keith Pardee .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 6144 GEPEA, Université de Nantes, La Roche sur Yon, France

    Gerald Thouand

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  1. Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Shimshon Belkin

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

    Paul Freemont

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Tinafar, A. et al. (2020). Cell-Free Biosensors: Synthetic Biology Without Borders. In: Thouand, G. (eds) Handbook of Cell Biosensors. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47405-2_130-1

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