Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Technological Institute E136, Evanston, IL 60208-3120, USA.
Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, 2170 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3120, USA.
Sci Adv. 2018 Aug 1;4(8):eaat5107. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat5107. eCollection 2018 Aug.
Synthetic biology offers opportunities for experiential educational activities at the intersection of the life sciences, engineering, and design. However, implementation of hands-on biology activities in classrooms is challenging because of the need for specialized equipment and expertise to grow living cells. We present BioBits™ Bright, a shelf-stable, just-add-water synthetic biology education kit with easy visual outputs enabled by expression of fluorescent proteins in freeze-dried, cell-free reactions. We introduce activities and supporting curricula for teaching the central dogma, tunable protein expression, and design-build-test cycles and report data generated by K-12 teachers and students. We also develop inexpensive incubators and imagers, resulting in a comprehensive kit costing <US$100 per 30-person classroom. The user-friendly resources of this kit promise to enhance biology education both inside and outside the classroom.
合成生物学为生命科学、工程和设计交叉领域的体验式教育活动提供了机会。然而，由于需要专门的设备和专业知识来培养活细胞，因此在课堂上实施生物学实践活动具有挑战性。我们提出了 BioBits ™ Bright，这是一种稳定的即用型、只需加水的合成生物学教育工具包，通过在冻干的无细胞反应中表达荧光蛋白来实现易于观察的输出。我们引入了一些活动和配套课程，用于教授中心法则、可调节的蛋白质表达以及设计-构建-测试循环，并报告了由 K-12 教师和学生生成的数据。我们还开发了价格低廉的孵育器和成像仪，使得该套件的总成本低于每个 30 人教室 100 美元。该套件的用户友好型资源有望增强课堂内外的生物学教育。
