Fluidics for Synthetic Biology

From commodity liquid handlers to out-sourced “cloud biology,” a network of complementary technologies are being developed to realize the longstanding vision of decoupling biological design from fabrication and measurement. Microfluidic platforms are promising technologies for both local (desktop) prototyping of biological designs as well as serving as part of the pipeline for biological outsourcing. We present here our latest research in automating microfluidic platforms for DNA assembly, from genes to genetic circuits, as well as the on-chip quantitative measurement of in vitro transcription and translation for protein production. We further present new classes of fluidic devices manufactured via digital fabrication (three-dimensional printing) for DNA assembly and microbial cell culture. Finally, we will discuss open-source infrastructure, including repositories for fluidic device and hardware designs, for lowering barriers of access to this increasingly powerful suite of tools.