Wearable biosensors enabled by cell-free synthetic biology
Name
NBT-TR49290B_Full.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
9.9 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4e76b53ede745a55fcc93692d256e532
Author(s)
Nguyen, Peter Q.
Soenksen Martinez, Luis Ruben
Donghia, Nina M.
Angenent-Mari, Nicolaas M.
de Puig Guixe, Helena
Huang, Ally
Lee, Rose
Slomovic, Shimyn
Galbersanini, Tommaso
Lansberry, Geoffrey
Alternative Title
Wearable materials with embedded synthetic biology sensors for biomolecule detection
Date Issued
June 2021
Journal
Nature Biotechnology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Nguyen, Peter Q. et al. "Wearable materials with embedded synthetic biology sensors for biomolecule detection." Nature Biotechnology (June 2021).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Integrating synthetic biology into wearables could expand opportunities for noninvasive monitoring of physiological status, disease states and exposure to pathogens or toxins. However, the operation of synthetic circuits generally requires the presence of living, engineered bacteria, which has limited their application in wearables. Here we report lightweight, flexible substrates and textiles functionalized with freeze-dried, cell-free synthetic circuits, including CRISPR-based tools, that detect metabolites, chemicals and pathogen nucleic acid signatures. The wearable devices are activated upon rehydration from aqueous exposure events and report the presence of specific molecular targets by colorimetric changes or via an optical fiber network that detects fluorescent and luminescent outputs. The detection limits for nucleic acids rival current laboratory methods such as quantitative PCR. We demonstrate the development of a face mask with a lyophilized CRISPR sensor for wearable, noninvasive detection of SARS-CoV-2 at room temperature within 90 min, requiring no user intervention other than the press of a button.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00950-3
