BioE Graduate Seminars

Event Introduction

Cell-free systems for on-demand biomanufacturing, molecular sensing, and education

Abstract

Cell-free biology is the activation of complex biological processes without using intact living cells. While used for more than 50 years as a foundational research tool for life sciences, a recent technical renaissance has made possible high-yielding cell-free gene expression systems (>g protein/L), the development of cell-free platforms from non-model organisms and multiplexed strategies for rapidly assessing biological design.

These advances provide exciting opportunities to profoundly transform synthetic biology through new approaches. To model-driven design of genetic circuits, fast and portable sensing of compounds, on demand biomanufacturing and building cells from the bottom up and next-generation educational kits. Here we describe our recent efforts to transform cell-free biotechnology.

Michael Jewett is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Director of the Center for Synthetic Biology at Northwestern University. Dr. Jewett received his Ph.D. in 2005 at Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral studies at the Center for Microbial Biotechnology in Denmark, the Harvard Medical School and was a guest professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

He is the recipient of the NIH Pathway to Independence Award in 2009, David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering in 2011, the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2011, Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 2015, the ACS Biochemical Technologies Division Young Investigator Award in 2017, and a finalist for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, Life Sciences Category in 2019.