Figure 1.

Next‐generation microbially derived biosensors. Synthetic biology research is providing an increasing number of biological parts enabling custom ligand detection, advanced signal processing and reporter output. These parts can be differentially composed into corresponding modules according to design specifications dictated by the envisioned application. Depending on the application constraints, the synthetic system obtained can be implemented either in a whole‐cell biosensor or in a cell‐free system operating on paper.