Biological and technical challenges for implementation of yeast‐based biosensors

Abstract

Biosensors are low‐cost and low‐maintenance alternatives to conventional analytical techniques for biomedical, industrial and environmental applications. Biosensors based on whole microorganisms can be genetically engineered to attain high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of selected analytes. While bacteria‐based biosensors have been extensively reported, there is a recent interest in yeast‐based biosensors, combining the microbial with the eukaryotic advantages, including possession of specific receptors, stability and high robustness. Here, we describe recently reported yeast‐based biosensors highlighting their biological and technical features together with their status of development, that is, laboratory or prototype. Notably, most yeast‐based biosensors are still in the early developmental stage, with only a few prototypes tested for real applications. Open challenges, including systematic use of advanced molecular and biotechnological tools, bioprospecting, and implementation of yeast‐based biosensors in electrochemical setup, are discussed to find possible solutions for overcoming bottlenecks and promote real‐world application of yeast‐based biosensors.

A Matlab-based application for quantification of yeast cell growth on solid media

“…The datasets supporting this article have been uploaded as part of the electronic supplementary material [26].…”

Visioning synthetic futures for yeast research within the context of current global techno‐political trends

“…An industrial workflow that can be automated at the cellular level will reduce the level of process touchpoints (human or autonomous), and is therefore highly likely to result in more resilient and less error prone engineering loops (Williams et al, 2016(Williams et al, , 2017. Self-regulating bioindustrial systems may benefit from cellular-level (or enzyme-level in a free cell system) biosensing solutions (Avalos, 2022;Wahid et al, 2023;Yu et al, 2022). These types of solutions offload sensing and computational needs from adjunct monitoring equipment to the actual living system responsible for the biomanufacturing or fermentation process.…”

Visioning synthetic futures for yeast research within the context of current global techno-political trends

“…An industrial workflow that can be automated at the cellular level will reduce the level of process touchpoints (human or autonomous), and is therefore highly likely to result in more resilient and less error prone engineering loop (Williams et al, 2016(Williams et al, , 2017. Self-regulating bioindustrial systems may benefit from cellular-level (or enzyme-level in a free cell system) biosensing solutions (Avalos, 2022;Wahid et al, 2023;Yu, Lei and Nie, 2022). These types of solutions offload sensing and computational needs from adjunct monitoring equipment to the actual living system responsible for the biomanufacturing or fermentation process.…”