Front cover
Biological Insights from Synthetic Biology
Guest editors Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Ahmad S. Khalil and John McCarthy introduce the Biological Insights from Synthetic Biology themed issue of Integrative Biology.
CRISPR-Cas9 technology: applications in genome engineering, development of sequence-specific antimicrobials, and future prospects
The development of CRISPR-Cas9 technology has revolutionized our ability to edit DNA and to modulate expression levels of genes of interest, thus providing powerful tools to accelerate the precise engineering of a wide range of organisms.
Synthetic biology approaches in cancer immunotherapy, genetic network engineering, and genome editing
Investigations into cells and their contents have provided evolving insight into the emergence of complex biological behaviors.
A morphospace for synthetic organs and organoids: the possible and the actual
Guiding synthetic organ exploration through acknowledging self-organisation and evolutionary constraints in the morphospace of the possible and the actual.
Synthetic biology: insights into biological computation
Synthetic biology attempts to rationally engineer biological systems in order to perform desired functions. Our increasing understanding of biological systems guides this rational design, while the huge background in electronics for building circuits defines the methodology.
Using synthetic biology to make cells tomorrow's test tubes
We present various exciting examples of synthetic biology as a means to distill biological systems to their essential features in order to make them theoretically tractable.
Review Article
The appeasement of Doug: a synthetic approach to enhancer biology
In this review, we discuss how we can use synthetic approaches to study animal enhancers, as well as the importance of both positive and negative results for advancing the field of developmental gene regulation.
Review Article
Genetically modified bacteriophages
Applications of genetically modified bacteriophages.
From noise to synthetic nucleoli: can synthetic biology achieve new insights?
Synthetic biology builds new systems not only for applications but also to understand biology, achieving fundamental insights in the process.
Synthetic biology: applying biological circuits beyond novel therapies
Synthetic biology, an engineering, circuit-driven approach to biology, has developed whole new classes of tools that can be used together to create novel mock systems, fine-tuned in vivo reporters, spatially and temporally inducible models and closed-loop systems often leading to previously unattainable biological insights.
Addressing biological uncertainties in engineering gene circuits
We discuss biological uncertainties that complicate predictable engineering of gene circuits and potential strategies to address these uncertainties.
Build to understand: synthetic approaches to biology
In this review we discuss how synthetic biology facilitates the task of investigating genetic circuits that are observed in naturally occurring biological systems.
Review Article
Nature versus design: synthetic biology or how to build a biological non-machine
We suggest that progress in synthetic biology will be achieved by abandoning the bio-machine paradigm and by using an alliance between engineering and evolution as a guiding tool.
Rationally rewiring the connectivity of the XylR/Pu regulatory node of the m-xylene degradation pathway in Pseudomonas putida
Rational rewiring of the components of the sigma-54 dependent promoter Pu enables transcriptional output to reach its physiological limit.
Performing selections under dynamic conditions for synthetic biology applications
As the design of synthetic circuits and metabolic networks becomes more complex it is often difficult to know a priori which parameters and design choices will result in a desired phenotype.
Paper
Chemical communication between bacteria and cell-free gene expression systems within linear chains of emulsion droplets
Using 1D arrangements of microdroplets to exchange chemical messages between cell-free systems and bacteria.
A synthetic gene circuit for measuring autoregulatory feedback control
A synthetic gene circuit for quantifying the strength of native feedback regulation among the RNA binding proteins in yeast.
Mutual regulation causes co-entrainment between a synthetic oscillator and the bacterial cell cycle
Bidirectional coupling between a synthetic oscillator and the bacterial cell cycle leads to their mutual entrainment.
A second-generation expression system for tyrosine-sulfated proteins and its application in crop protection
The synthetic biological production of posttranslationally modified proteins enables control of biological processes in plants and animals.
About this collection
Synthetic Biology is increasingly used to implement novel applications in which designer organisms perform complex tasks not easily amenable to traditional engineering methods, such as cancer detection, fuel generation, drug production, and recently even the re-creation of extinct species. From a more fundamental perspective, synthetic biology can also be used to probe the limits and capabilities of cells. This issue, guest edited by John McCarthy, Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo and Ahmad Khalil, publishes emerging research using synthetic biology to achieve new biological insights.