Synthetic biology is the practice of engineering cellular behavior, which is poised to transform society through the manufacture of “green” chemicals and fuels, personalized biological therapies, and cheap and deployable diagnostics. Despite the promise of this field, implementation of synthetic biology curriculum in education has been limited due to the need for refrigeration and specialized equipment to grow, store, and transport cells. We describe here the development of portable, just-add-water educational tools designed for use outside the laboratory by untrained operators. These tools were enabled by high-yielding (≥600 μg mL<sup>-1</sup>) and visible expression of a fluorescent protein library in freeze-dried cell-free (FD-CF) reactions that can be distributed without refrigeration. We developed two lab modules designed to teach the central dogma of biology and engineering design of biological systems and report data from successful testing with Chicago public school teachers and students. Our educational platform further decreases the cost of FD-CF reactions by two orders of magnitude compared to using commercially available kits, with reaction cost estimated at just ~$0.01 per microliter. This work represents the creation of a “chemistry kit” for synthetic biology, which promises to promote teaching of synthetic biology inside and outside the classroom.

Portable educational tools for synthetic biology

255th National Meeting (2018)

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