Recent advances in cell-free synthetic biology have spurred the development of in vitro molecular diagnostics that serve as effective alternatives to whole-cell biosensors. However, cell-free sensors for detecting manmade organic water contaminants such as pesticides are sparse, partially because few characterized natural biological sensors can directly detect such pollutants. Here,...
Recent advances in cell-free gene expression (CFE) systems have enabled their use for a host of synthetic biology applications, particularly for rapid prototyping of genetic circuits and biosensors. Despite the proliferation of cell-free protein synthesis platforms, the large number of currently existing protocols for making CFE extracts muddles the collective...