ArticlePloS one2021
Producing molecular biology reagents without purification.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Expression and Engineering of Conductive Cytochrome Nanowires.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- International multisite implementation of distributed cell-free protein biomanufacturing to advance health and research equity.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Strengthening Biomedical Research and Healthcare in Africa Through Localized Reagent Production.BioMed research international · 2026Review
- Understanding dry proteins and their protection with solid-state hydrogen-deuterium exchange.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2025Review
- Cell-Free Gene Expression: Methods and Applications.Chemical reviews · 2025Review
- Biocatalytic synthesis of 2'-deoxynucleotide 5'-triphosphates from bacterial genomic DNA: Proof of principle.Biotechnology and bioengineering · 2023Article
- Vivid COVID-19 LAMP is an ultrasensitive, quadruplexed test using LNA-modified primers and a zinc ion and 5-Br-PAPS colorimetric detection system.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Promise and perils of paper-based point-of-care nucleic acid detection for endemic and pandemic pathogens.Lab on a chip · 2023Review
- Kinetics of elementary steps in loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) show that strand invasion during initiation is rate-limiting.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Specific Nucleic AcId Ligation for the detection of Schistosomes: SNAILS.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Preparation and Use of Cellular Reagents: A Low-resource Molecular Biology Reagent Platform.Current protocols · 2022Article
- News Feature: Biology research, no cells required: By borrowing the machinery of life from broken cells, researchers are producing novel proteins, cheap lab reagents, and just-add-water vaccines.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
We recently developed 'cellular' reagents-lyophilized bacteria overexpressing proteins of interest-that can replace commercial pure enzymes in typical diagnostic and molecular biology reactions. To make cellular reagent technology widely accessible and amenable to local production with minimal instrumentation, we now report a significantly simplified method for preparing cellular reagents that requires only a common bacterial incubator to grow and subsequently dry enzyme-expressing bacteria at 37°C with the aid of inexpensive chemical desiccants. We demonstrate application of such dried cellular reagents in common molecular and synthetic biology processes, such as PCR, qPCR, reverse transcription, isothermal amplification, and Golden Gate DNA assembly, in building easy-to-use testing kits, and in rapid reagent production for meeting extraordinary diagnostic demands such as those being faced in the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Furthermore, we demonstrate feasibility of local production by successfully implementing this minimized procedure and preparing cellular reagents in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Cameroon, and Ghana. Our results demonstrate possibilities for readily scalable local and distributed reagent production, and further instantiate the opportunities available via synthetic biology in general.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.