Paper-based Synthetic Gene Networks

By Keith Pardee, Alexander A. Green, Tom Ferrante, D. Cameron, A. DaleyKeyser, Peng Yin, James J. Collins. Cell, 2014

596 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Synthetic gene networks have wide-ranging uses in reprogramming and rewiring organisms. To date, there has not been a way to harness the vast potential of these networks beyond the constraints of a laboratory or in vivo environment. Here, we present an in vitro paper-based platform that provides a new venue for synthetic biologists to operate, and a much-needed medium for the safe deployment of engineered gene circuits beyond the lab. Commercially available cell-free systems are freeze-dried onto paper, enabling the inexpensive, sterile and abiotic distribution of synthetic biology-based technologies for the clinic, global health, industry, research and education. For field use, we create circuits with colorimetric outputs for detection by eye, and fabricate a low-cost, electronic optical interface. We demonstrate this technology with small molecule and RNA actuation of genetic switches, rapid prototyping of complex gene circuits, and programmable in vitro diagnostics, including glucose sensors and strain-specific Ebola virus sensors.

Subfields: Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/44e2d7d0883099815691d6287944a1c0609130dc

How researchers see this paper

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In Molecular Biology

1. Alexander A. Green
2. James J. Collins
3. Pamela A. Silver
4. Peng Yin
5. Dongbin Xiu
6. Yaakov Benenson

Citations in the corpus

• Rapid, Low-Cost Detection of Zika Virus Using Programmable Biomolecular Components. (2016, unknown): “The second technology, a freeze-dried, paperbased, cell-free protein expression platform, allows for the deployment of these toehold switch sensors outside of a research laboratory by providing a sterile and abiotic method for the storage and distribution of genetic circuits at room temperature (Par”
• Complex cellular logic computation using ribocomputing devices (2017, background): “Integration of mRNA-sensing ribocomputing circuits with paper-based synthetic biology systems could improve the robustness and reliability of these diagnostic tools when they are deployed in the field 28,29 .”