Cell-free Expression Systems: Methods of Production and Use

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Matthew Lux

US Army CCDC Chemical Biological Center

Matthew Lux, PhD has served as Research Biologist for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical and Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) since 2013. He has degrees in computational biology and electrical engineering from Virginia Tech. In his current role, Dr. Lux serves as Principle Investigator for a range of synthetic biology projects, mostly related to cell-free systems. Specific emphasis is placed on the use of cell-free systems for sensing applications, especially in resource-poor environments. Efforts are focused on deployment of cell-free systems into paper and other substrates, rapid sensor development for emerging threats, and reliability and reproducibility issues with such systems. Other research areas include DNA as an information molecule and phage engineering, such as barcoding of microbes, DNA as a chemical taggant for item verification, and phage host-target engineering.

Jorge Chávez

US Air Force Research Laboratory

Jorge Chávez obtained a BSc in Chemistry from the Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he performed research in polymer chemistry, and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Florida, working in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials. He continued his career as an ORISE postdoctoral researcher at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH, working under the supervision of Dr. Morley Stone. Dr. Chávez is currently a Principal Investigator in the Airman Systems Directorate, 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW), Air Force Research Laboratory. Jorge's research focuses on developing sensing capabilities using biological systems and nanomaterials to monitor different non-medical conditions that affect human performance. He is also the technical advisor for the Molecular Sensing and Physiology Core Research Area in the 711 HPW.

Scott Walper

US Naval Research Laboratory

Scott Walper is a Research Biologist at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) within the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering (CBMSE). Dr. Walper obtained his PhD from The University of Southern Mississippi in Chemistry in 2010 and joined NRL as a National Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow in the same year. As a federal scientist he has led or contributed to a number of research programs in synthetic biology including engineering bacteria for bioremediation, biomaterials for flexible electronics, and designing a microbial sentinel for pathogen detection. In addition to these, Dr. Walper maintains research programs exploiting cell-free systems for building in vitro enzymatic cascades for biosynthesis of chemical precursors.

Collection Overview

Cell-free expression (CFE) systems are a collection of methods that use extracted cellular machinery to mimic core functions of cells, such as transcription and translation. These systems have seen an explosion of activity in recent years with new applications and supporting methods. Applications include sensors, point-of-need manufacturing, genetic prototyping, artificial cells, education, and basic science. Efforts to advance these applications are bolstered by the development of CFE systems derived from new organisms, improvements to core methods, and exploration of properties of CFE systems like stability after lyophilization and robustness to contaminants. This collection brings together methods used to produce CFE systems as well as their use. Methods of interest are those with relevance to the aforementioned or related topics, and include methods using either purified components or crude lysates.