Cell-Free Paper-Based Analysis of Gut Microbiota and Host Biomarkers.

The gut microbiome and its interactions with the host have been shown to affect several aspects of human health and disease. Investigations to elucidate these mechanisms typically involve sequence analysis of fecal samples. To support these studies, we present methods to design RNA toehold switch sensors to detect microbial and host transcripts.

YouTube resources for synthetic biology education.

Online video resources have increasingly become a common way to effectively share scientific research ideas and engage viewers at many levels of interest or expertise. While synthetic biology is a comparatively young field, it has accumulated online videos across a spectrum of content and technical depth. Such video content can be used to introduce viewers to synthetic biology, supplement college course content, teach new lab skills and entertain.

A low-cost paper-based synthetic biology platform for analyzing gut microbiota and host biomarkers.

There is a need for large-scale, longitudinal studies to determine the mechanisms by which the gut microbiome and its interactions with the host affect human health and disease. Current methods for profiling the microbiome typically utilize next-generation sequencing applications that are expensive, slow, and complex. Here, we present a synthetic biology platform for affordable, on-demand, and simple analysis of microbiome samples using RNA toehold switch sensors in paper-based, cell-free reactions.

BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit.

Hands-on demonstrations greatly enhance the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and foster engagement and exploration in the sciences. While numerous chemistry and physics classroom demonstrations exist, few biology demonstrations are practical and accessible due to the challenges and concerns of growing living cells in classrooms. We introduce BioBits™ Explorer, a synthetic biology educational kit based on shelf-stable, freeze-dried, cell-free (FD-CF) reactions, which are activated by simply adding water.

Biophysical Constraints Arising from Compositional Context in Synthetic Gene Networks.

Synthetic gene expression is highly sensitive to intragenic compositional context (promoter structure, spacing regions between promoter and coding sequences, and ribosome binding sites). However, much less is known about the effects of intergenic compositional context (spatial arrangement and orientation of entire genes on DNA) on expression levels in synthetic gene networks. We compare expression of induced genes arranged in convergent, divergent, or tandem orientations.

Nucleic acid detection with CRISPR-Cas13a/C2c2.

Rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive nucleic acid detection may aid point-of-care pathogen detection, genotyping, and disease monitoring. The RNA-guided, RNA-targeting clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) effector Cas13a (previously known as C2c2) exhibits a "collateral effect" of promiscuous ribonuclease activity upon target recognition. We combine the collateral effect of Cas13a with isothermal amplification to establish a CRISPR-based diagnostic (CRISPR-Dx), providing rapid DNA or RNA detection with attomolar sensitivity and single-base mismatch specificity.

Engineering Models to Scale.

Developing organisms can regulate and scale patterns to achieve consistent proportions despite immense changes in size. In this issue, Cao et al. build a model system, using engineered E.