title: Cell-free synthetic biology for environmental sensing and remediation.
abstract: The fields of biosensing and bioremediation leverage the phenomenal array of sensing and metabolic capabilities offered by natural microbes. Synthetic biology provides tools for transforming these fields through complex integration of natural and novel biological components to achieve sophisticated sensing, regulation, and metabolic function. However, the majority of synthetic biology efforts are conducted in living cells, and concerns over releasing genetically modified organisms constitute a key barrier to environmental applications. Cell-free protein expression systems offer a path towards leveraging synthetic biology, while preventing the spread of engineered organisms in nature. Recent efforts in the areas of cell-free approaches for sensing, regulation, and metabolic pathway implementation, as well as for preserving and deploying cell-free expression components, embody key steps towards realizing the potential of cell-free systems for environmental sensing and remediation.
authors.affiliation: Research and Exploratory Development Department, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel, MD, USA; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: David.Karig@jhuapl.edu.
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Karig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002474:Cell-Free System; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic