Creating a completely "cell-free" system for protein synthesis

Cell-free protein synthesis is a promising tool to take biotechnology outside of the cell. A cell-free approach provides distinct advantages over in vivo systems including open access to the reaction environment and direct control over all chemical components for facile optimization and synthetic biology integration. Promising applications of cell-free systems include portable diagnostics, biotherapeutics expression, rational protein engineering, and biocatalyst production. The highest yielding and most economical cell-free systems use an extract composed of the soluble component of lysed Escherichia coli. Although E. coli lysis can be highly efficient (>99.999%), one persistent challenge is that the extract remains contaminated with up to millions of cells per mL. In this work, we examine the potential of multiple decontamination strategies to further reduce or eliminate bacteria in cell-free systems. Two strategies, sterile filtration and lyophilization, effectively eliminate contaminating cells while maintaining the systems' protein synthesis capabilities. Lyophilization provides the additional benefit of long-term stability at storage above freezing. Technologies for personalized, portable medicine and diagnostics can be expanded based on these foundational sterilized and completely "cell-free" systems.