Synthetic biology meets diagnostics: Engineering biosensing platforms for rapid and accurate pathogen and viral detection

Abstract

The integration of synthetic biology with biosensor technologies has catalyzed a paradigm shift in the development of programmable, field-deployable diagnostic systems for precision detection of pathogens and viral threats. This review provides a comprehensive overview of current synthetic biology toolkits, such as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR-based) systems, argonaute proteins, and modular genetic circuits. These tools were integrated into biosensors and in vitro diagnostic devices. The applications of cell-free systems, modular genetic circuits, and nanomaterial-enhanced platforms have further expanded the versatility of these tools, which include infectious disease diagnostics, public health monitoring, and food safety. Recent studies integrate synthetic biology with artificial intelligence (AI) and nanotechnology, enabling the development of automated, low-cost, and high-throughput diagnostic systems. This review provides a comprehensive overview of current technologies, emerging trends, future directions, and challenges, which offers valuable insights for advancing pathogen detection and in vitro diagnostics through synthetic biology.

Keywords: Argonaute proteins; Biosensing; CRISPR; In vitro diagnostics; Pathogen detection; Synthetic biology.