On recent advances in synthetic biology to enable programming bacteria for biosensing applications

The genetic engineering of microbial organisms offers benefits to society through biotechnology applications. Traditionally, the “engineering” of microbes to arrive at organisms with desired behavior has not been engineering in a strict sense. It has, rather, required months (more often years) of trial-and-error type of experiments, with the undertaking being more akin to art than engineering. Enter synthetic biology, a burgeoning area since the turn of the century that aims to put the engineering into genetic engineering. Here, we provide a short commentary on some advancements in this field. By relating these advances to recent progress in our understanding of extracellular electron transfer in bacteria, we also provide a perspective on synthetic biology having the potential to enable the programming of bacteria for electronics engineering-related applications such as biosensors.