Chapter 19 - Development of next-generation diagnostic tools using synthetic biology

Abstract

Synthetic biology is an intersection between engineering and biology in which biological components are reconfigured for user-defined applications. To meet global health needs, many synthetic biology applications have focused on the development of biosensors and diagnostics. In this chapter, we discuss recent advancements in synthetic biology that have led to the production of novel diagnostics that are compatible with clinical samples, in vivo deployment, and point-of-care applications. In order to enable their broad dissemination to end-users, these diagnostics have the potential to be rapid, low cost, highly sensitive and specific, and user-friendly. First, we describe the cell-based and cell-free platforms commonly used for diagnostics applications. Then, we discuss several synthetic biosensing approaches including genetic circuits, RNA regulators, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats–Cas systems, aptamers, nonimmunoglobulin scaffolds, and activity-based molecular sensors. The combination of a chassis platform with a defined biosensor design has enabled the highly specific detection of a large variety of analytes, including heavy metals, small molecules, pathogen nucleic acids, and biomarkers from blood serum. Synthetic biology is a rapidly expanding field, and here we highlight recent discoveries and innovations that have led to the development of novel diagnostics.