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. 2023 Jan 14:1–7. Online ahead of print. doi: 10.1007/s12257-022-0279-2

The Use of Cell-free Protein Synthesis to Push the Boundaries of Synthetic Biology

Kyu Jae Kim 1, So-Jeong Lee 1, Dong-Myung Kim 1,✉
PMCID: PMC9840425  PMID: 36687336

Abstract

Cell-free protein synthesis is emerging as a powerful tool to accelerate the progress of synthetic biology. Notably, cell-free systems that harness extracted synthetic machinery of cells can address many of the issues associated with the complexity and variability of living systems. In particular, cell-free systems can be programmed with various configurations of genetic information, providing great flexibility and accessibility to the field of synthetic biology. Empowered by recent progress, cell-free systems are now evolving into artificial biological systems that can be tailored for various applications, including on-demand biomanufacturing, diagnostics, and new materials design. Here, we review the key developments related to cell-free protein synthesis systems, and discuss the future directions of these promising technologies.

Keywords: cell-free protein synthesis, synthetic biology, recombinant proteins, metabolic engineering, artificial cells

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a research grant from Chungnam National University of Korea.

Ethical Statements

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Neither ethical approval nor informed consent was required for this study.

Footnotes

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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