Development of Aspirin-Inducible Biosensors in and SimCells.

A simple aspirin-inducible system has been developed and characterized in by employing the promoter and SalR regulation system originally from ADP1. Mutagenesis at the DNA binding domain (DBD) and chemical recognition domain (CRD) of the SalR protein in ADP1 suggests that the effector-free form, SalR, can compete with the effector-bound form, SalR, binding the promoter and repressing gene transcription. The induction of the promoter was compared in two different gene circuit designs: a simple regulation system (SRS) and positive autoregulation (PAR).

Development of SimCells as a novel chassis for functional biosensors.

This work serves as a proof-of-concept for bacterially derived SimCells (Simple Cells), which contain the cell machinery from bacteria and designed DNA (or potentially a simplified genome) to instruct the cell to carry out novel, specific tasks. SimCells represent a reprogrammable chassis without a native chromosome, which can host designed DNA to perform defined functions. In this paper, the use of Escherichia coli MC1000 ∆minD minicells as a non-reproducing chassis for SimCells was explored, as demonstrated by their ability to act as sensitive biosensors for small molecules.