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James Collins, a synthetic biologist at Boston University, says he’s been able to print the ingredients for simple DNA experiments on paper, freeze dry them, and use them as much as a year later. It could lead to cheap diagnostic tests for viruses like Ebola.
The work, described this week in the journal Cell by Collins and colleagues from Harvard, could lead to bandages that change color if an infection is developing, environmental sensors worn on clothing, or cheap diagnostics for viruses like Ebola.
The idea of inexpensive paper-based diagnostics isn’t new. But so far, these tests have relied on traditional chemistry like pregnancy tests do (see “Super-Cheap Health Tests” and “Paper Diagnostics”). Collins says his work now extends the idea to precisely engineered genetic reactions.
The technology is an adaptation of a workhorse lab method known as a “cell free system,” in which the basic processes of a cell—such as reading a DNA strand to make a protein—are carried out in a test tube.
The advance Collins made was to embed cell-free systems...