Access to safe drinking water in resource limited environments relies on the ability to rapidly detect contaminants below the harmful level in field relevant conditions. Recent advances in cell-free synthetic biology have offered an attractive platform for the development of rapid sensors that can be lyophilized and easily transported to the point of need at ambient temperature. These sensors can be rehydrated with the source water and readily detect contaminants without requiring extensive culture conditions, sophisticated equipment or specialized skills. Here we optimize a cell free transcription factor based sensor for detection of cadmium in resource limited environment. The sensor was able to detect cadmium at military exposure guidelines (MEG) within half an hour without exhibiting cross reactivity to non-toxic metal ions tested. The optimization of the sensor enabled the detection of cadmium at MEG in NSF International test water recipe that simulates high quality ground water. Lyophilization and rehydration did not have a detrimental effect on the sensor performance, thereby extending its utility for portable manufacturing and field diagnostics. Lastly, optimization strategies were employed for detection of cadmium on paper tickets, enabling towards a transition into a field portable system for the rapid detection of cadmium in resource limited settings.

Optimization of cell-free sensor for detection of cadmium in resource limited environment

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.