Synthetic Biology—The Synthesis of Biology

Abstract

Synthetic biology concerns the engineering of man-made living biomachines from standardized components that can perform predefined functions in a (self-)controlled manner. Different research strategies and interdisciplinary efforts are pursued to implement engineering principles to biology. The "top-down" strategy exploits nature's incredible diversity of existing, natural parts to construct synthetic compositions of genetic, metabolic, or signaling networks with predictable and controllable properties. This mainly application-driven approach results in living factories that produce drugs, biofuels, biomaterials, and fine chemicals, and results in living pills that are based on engineered cells with the capacity to autonomously detect and treat disease states in vivo. In contrast, the "bottom-up" strategy seeks to be independent of existing living systems by designing biological systems from scratch and synthesizing artificial biological entities not found in nature. This more knowledge-driven approach investigates the reconstruction of minimal biological systems that are capable of performing basic biological phenomena, such as self-organization, self-replication, and self-sustainability. Moreover, the syntheses of artificial biological units, such as synthetic nucleotides or amino acids, and their implementation into polymers inside living cells currently set the boundaries between natural and artificial biological systems. In particular, the in vitro design, synthesis, and transfer of complete genomes into host cells point to the future of synthetic biology: the creation of designer cells with tailored desirable properties for biomedicine and biotechnology.

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

“…Synthetic biologists are dedicating to synthesizing, re‐engineering, and manipulating simpler life‐like entities systems on a genomic, proteomic, or cellular level with high controllability . The fabricated unnatural chemical structures were applied for realize the deeper understanding of natural biological systems.…”

Bottom-up approaches in synthetic biology and biomaterials for tissue engineering applications

“…In addition to transcription factor genetic circuits, mammalian synthetic biologists have utilized enzymes from bacteria and yeast that bind to site-specific DNA sequences and function to alter the sequence through irreversible excisions, inversions, and integrations, depending on the orientation and architecture of the DNA recognition sites [129]. This recombinase technology has been utilized in many organisms to program cells with Boolean logic functions [149, 86, 88], cellular computation [150, 20], and cellular memory [151–155, 89].…”

Biofunctionalized Materials Featuring Feedforward and Feedback Circuits Exemplified by the Detection of Botulinum Toxin A

“…On cellular level, receptors sense input signals and transduce this information to intracellular signaling pathways that initiate specific cellular responses. [11,12] This synthetic biological concept has delivered new approaches for studying signaling mechanisms, and opened the door for diverse applications in many fields including biotechnology and medicine. Most signaling pathways are characterized by complex feedforward and feedback regulation and crosstalk with other pathways, thus forming intricate signaling networks.…”