Rapid, Reliable and Repeatable Platforms for Cell-Free Prototyping

We are working with Synvitrobio, Inc. to develop and commercialize a cell-free platform that that emulates the in vivo environment and allows for rapid, low-cost, high-throughput, and reproducible prototyping of complex biomolecular networks. Achieving this goal will accelerate predictive and rational engineering of biology by providing an intermediary environment between design and execution.

Current participants: Additional participants:

Collaborators: Zachary Sun, Abel Chiao (Synvitrobio, Inc.) Past participants: Clare Hayes (research tech) Mark Prator (Technician, EAS) Vipul Singhal (PhD student, CNS)

Objectives

Work at Caltech is focused on the following areas:

• Reduce variability of output data from the cell-free experts by analyzing sources of variability and developing methods of calibrating cell-free data sets
• Explore the use of lyophilized extracts and buffers for long-term storage.

References

• A MATLAB toolbox for modeling genetic circuits in cell-free systems. Vipul Singhal, Zoltan A. Tuza, Zachary Z. Sun, Richard M. Murray. Synthetic Biology, 6(1):ysab007, 2021.
• Cell-Free Extract Data Variability Reduction in the Presence of Structural Non-Identifiability. Vipul Singhal and Richard M. Murray. Submitted, 2019 American Control Conference (ACC).

Agency: Synvitrobio Grant number:

Start date: 1 Oct 2016 End date: 31 Jul 2018

Support: 0.5 students + technician support, materials Reporting: Monthly updates; quarterly reports