Integrating biological redesign: where synthetic biology came from and where it needs to go

Jeffrey C Way; James J Collins; Jay D Keasling; Pamela A Silver

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.039

Integrating biological redesign: where synthetic biology came from and where it needs to go

Cell. 2014 Mar 27;157(1):151-61. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.039.

Authors

Jeffrey C Way¹, James J Collins², Jay D Keasling³, Pamela A Silver⁴

Affiliations

¹ Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center of Synthetic Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Joint Bioenergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC), University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁴ Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC), University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Electronic address: pamela_silver@hms.harvard.edu.

PMID: 24679533
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.039

Abstract

Synthetic biology seeks to extend approaches from engineering and computation to redesign of biology, with goals such as generating new chemicals, improving human health, and addressing environmental issues. Early on, several guiding principles of synthetic biology were articulated, including design according to specification, separation of design from fabrication, use of standardized biological parts and organisms, and abstraction. We review the utility of these principles over the past decade in light of the field's accomplishments in building complex systems based on microbial transcription and metabolism and describe the progress in mammalian cell engineering.

Publication types

Historical Article
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Bacteria / genetics
Bacteria / metabolism
Cells / metabolism
Genetic Engineering
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Metabolic Engineering
Proteins / chemistry
Proteins / genetics
Proteins / metabolism
Synthetic Biology* / history
Synthetic Biology* / methods

Substances

Proteins