Pollution-intensive industrial manufacturing processes threaten the health of ecosystems and societies through toxic waste streams and energy intensive processes that lead to greenhouse gas emissions. Biological systems present more sustainable routes to many useful industrial chemicals by using enzymes at low temperatures, but the time and effort required to optimized...
Cellular translation is responsible for the synthesis of proteins, a highly diverse class of macromolecules that form the basis of biological function. In Escherichia coli, harnessing and engineering of the biomolecular components of translation, such as ribosomes, transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, has led to both biotechnology products (i.e.,...
Biological therapeutics have revolutionized the way we treat cancer due to their ability to target tumors discriminately, leaving healthy cells unaffected. However, our inability to tailor the structure of biologics may hamper their optimization for efficacy. This lack of programmability contributes to factors such as immunogenic responses, inability to penetrate...
Cell-based therapies are an exciting frontier in medicine. This field is built on a simple premise—cells can be engineered to recognize and treat various human diseases. The paradigm of cell-based therapy uses biosensors to interrogate a cell’s environment and distinguish disease from health, intracellular signaling pathways and genetic circuitry to...
Metabolite biosensors are powerful tools for basic biological research, medical diagnostics, and biotechnological applications. However, a generalizable strategy for developing new metabolite biosensors when an existing sensor cannot be found in nature, is a persistent challenge. Furthermore, while transcription factor biosensors have the broadest range of applications, the pool of...
