Nature Communications (Aug 2018)

A low-cost paper-based synthetic biology platform for analyzing gut microbiota and host biomarkers

  • Melissa K. Takahashi,
  • Xiao Tan,
  • Aaron J. Dy,
  • Dana Braff,
  • Reid T. Akana,
  • Yoshikazu Furuta,
  • Nina Donghia,
  • Ashwin Ananthakrishnan,
  • James J. Collins

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05864-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Currently, gut microbiome profiling largely relies on next-generation sequencing, which is slow and expensive. Here, the authors develop a low-cost, paper-based synthetic biology platform that allows species-specific quantification of bacterial mRNAs and clinically relevant host biomarkers.