Synthetic biology is an emerging interdisciplinary research field. By designing and constructing new or re-designing the existing natural systems, it confers them novel functions, which do not exist in nature. Owing to the predictability and controllability, synthetic biology attracts more and more interest from biologists, physicists, and engineers. Synthetic biology approaches not only can be widely used for biotechnological applications but also can be used to study complex biological systems to address fundamental questions. Here, we reviewed the recent studies following the concept of "build-to-understand", particularly, the studies to understand intracellular network structure, cell physiology, the behavior of multicellular populations, and ecosystems.
合成生物学作为一门新兴的交叉学科，吸引了来自生物学、数理科学和工程学等不同学科的研究人员以及产业界的广泛关注和参与。它旨在通过从头创造全新的或改造已有的生物系统，实现天然生物系统不具备的功能与特性。合成生物学研究不仅具有广阔的生物产业应用前景，更为基础科研提供了全新的手段和思路。本文着眼于合成生物学“建物致知”的理念，跟踪合成生物学研究在回答生命科学基础问题方面取得的相关成果，简述了其在细胞内分子调控网络、细胞生理学、多细胞群体形态与行为以及多物种微生态学等研究中的应用。.
Keywords: build-to-understand; cell physiology; cellular structure; genetic circuit; genetic network; micro-ecology; synthetic biology.