Synthetic Biology Enables Programmable Cell‐Based Biosensors

Abstract

The front cover artwork is provided by the group of Dr. Baojun Wang (The University of Edinburgh). The image shows an engineered bacterial cell containing a genetic amplifier circuit which transforms a weak input signal into a larger easily detectable output signal. The electronics symbols used to illustrate the genetic circuit highlight the programmability of the circuit components enabled by state‐of‐the‐art synthetic biology tools. Read the full text of the Review at 10.1002/cphc.201900739.

Genetic control of violacein biosynthesis to enable a pigment-based whole-cell lead biosensor

“…Cell-based sensors offer diversied, portable and cheap methods for the detection of heavy metal but have yet to be truly adopted commercially. 7 The state-of-the-art tools offered by synthetic biology enable us to develop more novel biosensors with customizable performance to meet the requirements for practical application.…”

“…6 Microbial cellbased sensors have great potential to detect various bioavailable heavy metal contaminants in an aqueous environment. 7 Due to the extraordinary sensitivity and selectivity of metalloregulators towards target metal ions, many whole-cell biosensors using them as sensory elements have been successfully developed to cope with prevalent heavy metal contamination. 8,9 The MerR family is a major metalloregulatory protein family, which is very large and has members that sense not only a wide range of biologically required metals but also heavy metal toxicants.…”

“…6 With the rapid development of synthetic biology, a few novel biosensors with customizable performance have been successfully constructed to meet the requirements for practical application. 7 A modular cell-based biosensor could be engineered that can detect multiple environmental pollutants 19 or integrate multiplesignal output modules into an articial operon. 9 As more and more genes for pigment metabolisms were elucidated, some natural pigments including carotenoid, lycopene, and pyocyanin have been employed as reporters for the development of whole-cell biosensors to enable visible signal output.…”

Computer-Aided Whole-Cell Design: Taking a Holistic Approach by Integrating Synthetic With Systems Biology

“…The application of WCMs to the design, prototyping and testing of whole-cell biosensors could suggest rational approaches to tune their sensitivity, stability, and dynamic range while facilitating the choice of the ideal chassis and, if needed, guide its re-engineering to optimize biosensor performance (Hicks et al, 2020). If WCMs become available for different chassis and entire organisms, they could also support the design of optimized targeted delivery of genetically encoded biosensors.…”

AL-PHA beads: bioplastic-based protease biosensors for global health applications

“…Synthetic biology is an established scientific field, based upon engineering design principles, that has led to innovations in the development of biosensors and bioreporters geared towards global health applications [1][2][3]. Synthetic biology biosensors and bioreporters have been successfully developed to help detect drinking water contaminants [4], environmental or industrial pollutants [5] and disease biomarkers [6,7].…”