At-home, cell-free synthetic biology education modules for transcriptional regulation and environmental water quality monitoring.

As the field of synthetic biology expands, the need to grow and train science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) practitioners is essential. However, the lack of access to hands-on demonstrations has led to inequalities of opportunity and practice. In addition, there is a gap in providing content that enables students to make their own bioengineered systems. To address these challenges, we develop four shelf-stable cell-free biosensing educational modules that work by just-adding-water and DNA to freeze-dried crude extracts of Escherichia coli . We introduce activities and supporting curricula to teach the structure and function of the lac operon, dose-responsive behavior, considerations for biosensor outputs, and a 'build-your-own' activity for monitoring environmental contaminants in water. We piloted these modules with K-12 teachers and 130 high school students in their classrooms - and at home - without professional laboratory equipment or researcher oversight. This work promises to catalyze access to interactive synthetic biology education opportunities.

At-Home, Cell-Free Synthetic Biology Education Modules for Transcriptional Regulation and Environmental Water Quality Monitoring.

As the field of synthetic biology expands, the need to grow and train science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) practitioners is essential. However, the lack of access to hands-on demonstrations has led to inequalities of opportunity and practice. In addition, there is a gap in providing content that enables students to make their own bioengineered systems. To address these challenges, we develop four shelf-stable cell-free biosensing educational modules that work by simply adding water and DNA to freeze-dried crude extracts of non-pathogenic Escherichia coli. We introduce activities and supporting curricula to teach the structure and function of the lac operon, dose-responsive behavior, considerations for biosensor outputs, and a "build-your-own" activity for monitoring environmental contaminants in water. We piloted these modules with K-12 teachers and 130 high-school students in their classrooms─and at home─without professional laboratory equipment. This work promises to catalyze access to interactive synthetic biology education opportunities.

Recent advancements in fungal-derived fuel and chemical production and commercialization.

Due to unsustainable petroleum supply and poor yields from plant and animal sources, there is an increased effort to engineer microbial hosts for renewable chemical production. When compared to microbes such as Escherichia coli, fungal hosts show advantages due to their natural robust tolerance for industrial fermentation. Synthetic biology has focused on implementing heterologous pathways and manipulating native flux towards downstream products to achieve industrial productivity, titers, and yields. This review highlights recent advances in the engineering of yeasts for fuels and other molecules. As the field progresses, strains with improved productivities will begin to compete with the traditional chemical-based industrial approaches.

CRISPR-PIN: Modifying gene position in the nucleus via dCas9-mediated tethering.

Spatial organization of DNA within the nucleus is important for controlling DNA replication and repair, genetic recombination, and gene expression. Here, we present CRISPR-PIN, a CRISPR/dCas9-based tool that allows control of gene Position in the Nucleus for the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This approach utilizes a cohesin-dockerin interaction between dCas9 and a perinuclear protein. In doing so, we demonstrate that a single gRNA can enable programmable interaction of nuclear DNA with the nuclear periphery. We demonstrate the utility of this approach for two applications: the controlled segregation of an acentric plasmid and the re-localization of five endogenous loci. In both cases, we obtain results on par with prior reports using traditional, more cumbersome genetic systems. Thus, CRISPR-PIN offers the opportunity for future studies of chromosome biology and gene localization.