Impact of Synthetic Biology in Point-of-Care Diagnostics

The development of synthetic biology presents an emerging field for the development of point-of-care diagnostics. Through the genetic engineering of organisms, a myriad of sense and response modalities can be artificially created to enable the detection of various target analytes. These biologically based platforms benefit from the genotype-phenotype linkage which enable their rapid development and subsequent scalability. Through artificial evolution, development of novel antibody or bacteriophage-based receptors may be rapidly created to sense emerging targets of interest. The rational design and engineering of genetic circuits now enables the repurposing of living organisms to enable sensitive detection of desired biomarkers for diagnostic monitoring and further system engineering has led to cell free based systems, where only essential components for sensing and response are required and unnecessary components of the host organism may be discarded. This chapter will describe ongoing research strategies & methodologies toward developing the next generation of point-of-care diagnostic devices derived from synthetic biology.