Gene expression remotely controlled by an electronic device using a thermal interface

Abstract

Synthetic biology is a field of Biology that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by rationally engineering them to have new abilities. The potential to reengineer living organisms has provided tools to address energy, environmental or medical issues. One of the most promising applications of synthetic biology is the creation of biocomputational devices, which can be used as biosensors for example. Recent advances in this field have been able to print 2D multicellular biocircuits in paper. The aim of this work is to improve this technology by building a new way of communication between these printed biocircuits and electronic devices such as computers or smartphones. This will allow the control of biological computational devices remotely. In this work we use temperature as the communication interface between the electronic device and the biological systems. In this approach the heat is provided by an Arduino-controlled resistor and sensed by engineered cells expressing an RNA thermometer sequence. To test our prototype, a generic GFP reporter system was built, consisting of a constitutive promoter and an RNA thermometer. The GFP expression of this reporter system was characterized as a function of temperature both in liquid LB culture and in printed paper placed on LB-Agar plates. Increasing the complexity of the system, the use of recombinases such as Bxb1 allows in vivo DNA modifications with the purpose of reprogram the cells in a temperature-dependent manner. Designing the proper genetic architecture, we are able to change the cell type by performing flip or excision on their DNA sequences. This technology gives new opportunities for the creation of new remotely reprogrammable biosensors, which could be used to reach hostile environments such as the depths of the ocean or another planet.