Cell-free expression and synthesis of viruses and bacteriophages: applications to medicine and nanotechnology

The efficacy of cell-free gene expression (CFE) has been considerably improved in the last decade. As a consequence, CFE systems have now capacity to express DNAs composed tens genes encoding for complex self-assembly processes. A recent example is demonstration that infectious bacteriophages can be synthesized one-pot reactions from their genomes. This landmark result opens new perspectives producing vitro large biological natural or synthetic DNA. In this article, we review progress synthesis and viruses reactions, primarily covering bacteriophages. We discuss advantages potential virus-like particles phages biomedical applications. Because they are most abundant diverse life forms on Earth, dynamically synthesizing whole parts test tubes could facilitate uncovering novel functions exploiting properties material sciences