Rapid, reliable and repeatable platforms for cell-free prototyping

Cell-free platforms are a disruptive technology that can dramatically speed up the design-build-test cycle of biomolecular engineering. However, most currently available cell-free platforms are optimized for protein expression rather than for prototyping. Synvitrobio proposes to develop and commercialize a next-generation cell-free platform that allows for rapid, low-cost, high-throughput, and reproducible prototyping of complex biomolecular networks that emulate the in vivo environment. This next-generation cell-free platform is based on the published E. coli TX-TL system, which has been demonstrated to enable prototyping of complex circuits and pathways in vitro. Utilizing its experience and expertise in cell-free systems, Synvitrobio will contribute improvements in five key categories: cost, variability, scale, deployment, and diversity. Improvements will be tailored to specific cell-free applications of defense, commercial, and academic interest, and the cell-free platforms will be optimized against circuit behavior in vivo rather than purely against expression. We anticipate 4-100x fold cost-reductions, 4-50x variability reductions, and 4-100x scale increases over the current standard. We will also develop multiple distribution and cell-free platforms from different organisms to expand the application space of cell-free platforms.