The One-Pot PURE (Protein synthesis Using Recombinant Elements) system simplifies the preparation of traditional PURE systems by coculturing and purifying 36 essential proteins for gene expression in a single step, enhancing accessibility...

RNA toehold switches are a widely used class of molecule to detect specific RNA trigger sequences, but their design, intended function, and characterization to date leave it unclear whether they can function...

The phase separation of aqueous polymer solutions is a widely used method for producing self-assembled, membraneless droplet protocells. Nonionic synthetic polymers forming an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) have been shown to reliably...

Field-deployable diagnostics based on cell-free systems have advanced greatly, but on-site quantification of target analytes remains a challenge. Here we demonstrate that Escherichia coli lysate-based cell-free biosensors coupled to a personal glucose...

Simultaneous detection of multiple analytes from a single sample (multiplexing), particularly when done at the point of need, can guide complex decision-making without increasing the required sample volume or cost per test....

The field of metabolic engineering has yielded remarkable accomplishments in using cells to produce valuable molecules, and cell-free expression (CFE) systems have the potential to push the field even further. However, CFE...

Electroporation is a basic yet powerful method for delivering small molecules (RNA, DNA, drugs) across cell membranes by application of an electrical field. It is used for many diverse applications, from genetically...

Easy-to-perform, relatively inexpensive blood diagnostics have transformed at-home healthcare for some patients, but they require analytical equipment and are not easily adapted to measuring other biomarkers. The requirement for reliable quantification in...

RNA regulators are powerful components of the synthetic biology toolbox. Here, we expand the repertoire of synthetic gene networks built from these regulators by constructing a transcriptional negative autoregulation (NAR) network out...