SARS-CoV-2 is a human pathogen and the main cause of COVID-19 disease, announced as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 is characterized by severe conditions, and early diagnosis can make dramatic changes for both personal and public health. Low-cost, easy-to-use diagnostic capabilities can have a very critical role in controlling the transmission of the disease. Here, we are reporting a state-of-the-art diagnostic tool developed with an in vitro synthetic biology approach by employing engineered de novo riboregulators. Our design coupled with a home-made point-of-care device can detect and report the presence of SARS-CoV-2-specific genes. The presence of SARS-CoV-2-related genes triggers the translation of sfGFP mRNAs, resulting in a green fluorescence output. The approach proposed here has the potential of being a game changer in SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics by providing an easy-to-run, low-cost diagnostic capability.

Biocompatibility assessment of nanomaterials has been of great interest due to their potential toxicity. However, conventional biocompatibility tests fall short of providing a fast toxicity report. We developed a whole cell based biosensor to track biocompatibility of nanomaterials with the aim of providing fast feedback to engineer them with lower toxicity levels. We engineered promoters of four heat shock response (HSR) proteins utilizing synthetic biology approaches. As an initial design, a reporter coding gene was cloned downstream of the selected promoter regions. Initial results indicated that native heat shock protein (HSP) promoter regions were not very promising to generate signals with low background signals. Introducing riboregulators to native promoters eliminated unwanted background signals almost entirely. Yet, this approach also led to a decrease in expected sensor signal upon stress treatment. Thus, a repression based genetic circuit, inspired by the HSR mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was constructed. These genetic circuits could report the toxicity of quantum dot nanoparticles in 1 h. Our designed nanoparticle toxicity sensors can provide quick reports, which can lower the demand for additional experiments with more complex organisms.

Microplastic (MP) pollution is rising at an alarming rate, imposing overwhelming problems for the ecosystem. The impact of MPs on life and environmental cycles has already reached a point of no return; yet global awareness of this issue and regulations regarding MP exposure could change this situation in favor of human health. Detection and separation methods for different MPs need to be deployed to achieve the goal of reversing the effect of MPs. Microfluidics is a well-established technology that enables to manipulate samples in microliter volumes in an unprecedented manner. Owing to its low cost, ease of operation, and high efficiency, microfluidics holds immense potential to tackle unmet challenges in MP. In this review, conventional MP detection and separation technologies are comprehensively reviewed, along with state-of-the-art examples of microfluidic platforms. In addition, we herein denote an insight into future directions for microfluidics and how this technology would provide a more efficient solution to potentially eradicate MP pollution.

Although molecular communication systems have been shown to bear great potential for many useful in-body applications, they require the intervention, action, or input of an out-of-body actor. From an Internet of Bio-Nano Things perspective, a successful overall network aims to bring together the two links belonging to the in-body and out-of-body networks for end-to-end communications. For most applications, the uplink from the in-body sensor is more significant since it provides the multi-scalar connection required to relay the information sensed and carried by the molecular communication system to a macro-scale smart terminal. This article proposes two different mechanisms to sense the output of the molecular communication system and transmit the information to an on-body reader. Each mechanism involves different genetically engineered bacteria and specific antenna designs. An experimental setup is provided to demonstrate each proposed concept. The results constitute a proof of concept to detect the in-body bacterial activity from the on-body reader.

Biocompatibility assessment of nanomaterials has been of great interest due to their potential toxicity. However, conventional biocompatibility tests are short of providing a fast toxicity report. We developed a whole cell based biosensor to track biocompatibility of nanomaterials with the aim of providing fast feedback for engineering nanomaterials with lower toxicity levels. We have engineered promoters of four heat shock response proteins. As an initial design a reporter coding gene was cloned to downstream of the promoter regions selected. Initial results indicated that native HSP promoter regions were not very promising to generate signals with low background signals. Introducing riboregulators to native promoters eliminated unwanted background signal almost entirely. Unfortunately, this approach also leads a decrease in expected sensor signal. Thus, a repression based genetic circuit, inspired 2 from HSP mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was constructed. These genetic circuits can report the toxicity of Quantum Dot nanoparticles in one hour with high precision. Our designed nanoparticle toxicity sensors can provide quick reports which can lower the demand for additional experiments with more complex organisms. gene. 10,14 Under steady state conditions, sigma 32 level is maintained at constant levels due to its unstable nature; however, after exposure to any stress, sigma 32 level is dramatically elevated via improved stability as well as increased synthesis. 10,15,16 Sigma 32 is regulated by a negative feedback loop controlled by DnaK-DnaJ-GrpE mechanism. 17 Accumulation of chaperones in this mechanism holds sigma 32 and blocks its activity 18,19 , leading to degradation of sigma 32 by FtsH; a special sigma 32 degrading protease. 20 Therefore, monitoring of HSP levels in cells can be used as a promising stress indicator.Nanomaterials are of great interest for their wide range of applicability across many areas from medicine to optoelectronics. Nanoparticles have size-dependent tunable optical and physical properties; which are not usual for bulk materials 21-23 , nanomaterials are widely used in innovative applications such as in medical diagnostics, drug delivery and targeted photothermal therapy. In all of these approaches patients have to be exposed to nanomaterials. 24 Also, utilization of nanomaterials in consumer goods may contaminate environment, food and textiles. 25 Despite their success in many applications, nanomaterials' high surface-tovolume ratio indicates potential health problems. In addition, due to their small size, nanomaterials are able to penetrate through cellular barriers easily which may cause cellular stress and many adverse effects such as protein unfolding 26 , DNA damage 27,28 , ROS generation 29-31 , and disruption of gene expression 27,28,32 . At the system level, nanomaterials can trigger inflammation and alter immune system response [33][34][35] . Thus, development of a quick and reliable sensor system that reports nanomaterial-triggered toxicity is very critica...

Sars-CoV-2 is a human pathogen and is the main cause of COVID-19 disease. COVID-19 is announced as a global pandemic by World Health Organization. COVID-19 is characterized by severe conditions and early diagnosis can make dramatic changes both for personal and public health. In order to increase the reach for low cost equipment which requires a very limited technical knowledge can be beneficial to diagnose the viral infection. Such diagnostic capabilities can have a very critical role to control the transmission of the disease. Here we are reporting a state-of-the-art diagnostic tool developed by using an in vitro synthetic biology approach by employing engineered de novo riboregulators. Our design coupled with a home-made point-of-care device setting can detect and report presence of Sars-CoV-2 specific genes. The presence of Sars-CoV-2 related genes triggers translation of sfGFP mRNAs, resulting in green fluorescence output. The approach proposed here has the potential of being a game changer in Sars-COV-2 diagnostics by providing an easy-to-run, low-cost-demanding diagnostic capability.

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