A New Form of Bio-Active Materials: Blending Dry Cell-Free Systems and Synthetic Polymers

Cell-free systems have growing importance as a way to use synthetic biology tools in resource-poor environments. Lysates may be dried for storage, delivering biochemical activity for sensing or producing molecules on-demand upon rehydration at the point of need. Up to now, cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) reactions have been studied as aqueous solutions in test tubes or absorbed onto paper or cloth. Embedding biological functionality into broadly-used materials, such as plastic polymers, has long been an attractive goal. Unfortunately, this goal has for the most part remained out of reach, often due to the fragility of biological systems outside of aqueous environments. In this work, we describe and utilize a surprising and useful feature of lyophilized cell-free lysate systems: tolerance to casting methods involving exposure to organic solvents or heat up to 90°C. To explore this recently discovered feature, a variety of solvents were tested and CFPS reaction components were screened for protective properties. CFPS is compatible with several polymer types and casting conditions. Tolerance to polymer casting enables the delivery of dry cell-free reactions in the form of coatings or fibers, among other processing possibilities.