Seeding sustainable education in developing countries

Bueso, Yensi Flores; Tangney, Mark

doi:10.15252/embr.202050587

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Starting with a protein expression plasmid, a bacterial strain suited for protein production, and a DIY bacterial incubator built from locally sourced parts we successfully produced and applied cellular reagents in both Cameroon and Ghana. The breadth of the cellular reagent tool kit and its crossover with DIY efforts implies that evaporated cellular reagents could be useful in implementing educational kits and curricula [43], an especially important application given that a large body of research suggests that hands-on learning experiences are significantly more impactful than observation-based approaches [44,45]. Cellular reagents should have an ease of use similar to teaching tools that rely on rehydration of freeze-dried cell-free reaction systems [4], but as they require much less instrumentation and expertise to produce compared to cellfree extracts, they could further enhance the flexibility of curriculum design through enabling adaptation and customization by educators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Producing molecular biology reagents without purification

et al. 2021

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We recently developed ‘cellular’ reagents–lyophilized bacteria overexpressing proteins of interest–that can replace commercial pure enzymes in typical diagnostic and molecular biology reactions. To make cellular reagent technology widely accessible and amenable to local production with minimal instrumentation, we now report a significantly simplified method for preparing cellular reagents that requires only a common bacterial incubator to grow and subsequently dry enzyme-expressing bacteria at 37°C with the aid of inexpensive chemical desiccants. We demonstrate application of such dried cellular reagents in common molecular and synthetic biology processes, such as PCR, qPCR, reverse transcription, isothermal amplification, and Golden Gate DNA assembly, in building easy-to-use testing kits, and in rapid reagent production for meeting extraordinary diagnostic demands such as those being faced in the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Furthermore, we demonstrate feasibility of local production by successfully implementing this minimized procedure and preparing cellular reagents in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Cameroon, and Ghana. Our results demonstrate possibilities for readily scalable local and distributed reagent production, and further instantiate the opportunities available via synthetic biology in general.

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