PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stark, Jessica C.
AU  - Huang, Ally
AU  - Nguyen, Peter Q.
AU  - Dubner, Rachel S.
AU  - Hsu, Karen J.
AU  - Ferrante, Thomas C.
AU  - Anderson, Mary
AU  - Kanapskyte, Ada
AU  - Mucha, Quinn
AU  - Packett, Jessica S.
AU  - Patel, Palak
AU  - Patel, Richa
AU  - Qaq, Deema
AU  - Zondor, Tyler
AU  - Burke, Julie
AU  - Martinez, Thomas
AU  - Miller-Berry, Ashlee
AU  - Puppala, Aparna
AU  - Reichert, Kara
AU  - Schmid, Miriam
AU  - Brand, Lance
AU  - Hill, Lander R.
AU  - Chellaswamy, Jemima F.
AU  - Faheem, Nuhie
AU  - Fetherling, Suzanne
AU  - Gong, Elissa
AU  - Gonzalzles, Eddie Marie
AU  - Granito, Teresa
AU  - Koritsaris, Jenna
AU  - Nguyen, Binh
AU  - Ottman, Sujud
AU  - Palffy, Christina
AU  - Patel, Angela
AU  - Skweres, Sheila
AU  - Slaton, Adriane
AU  - Woods, TaRhonda
AU  - Donghia, Nina
AU  - Pardee, Keith
AU  - Collins, James J.
AU  - Jewett, Michael C.
TI  - BioBits™ Bright: A fluorescent synthetic biology education kit
AID  - 10.1126/sciadv.aat5107
DP  - 2018 Aug 01
TA  - Science Advances
PG  - eaat5107
VI  - 4
IP  - 8
4099  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat5107.short
4100  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat5107.full
SO  - Sci Adv2018 Aug 01; 4
AB  - Synthetic biology offers opportunities for experiential educational activities at the intersection of the life sciences, engineering, and design. However, implementation of hands-on biology activities in classrooms is challenging because of the need for specialized equipment and expertise to grow living cells. We present BioBits™ Bright, a shelf-stable, just-add-water synthetic biology education kit with easy visual outputs enabled by expression of fluorescent proteins in freeze-dried, cell-free reactions. We introduce activities and supporting curricula for teaching the central dogma, tunable protein expression, and design-build-test cycles and report data generated by K-12 teachers and students. We also develop inexpensive incubators and imagers, resulting in a comprehensive kit costing <US$100 per 30-person classroom. The user-friendly resources of this kit promise to enhance biology education both inside and outside the classroom.