What is Synthetic Biology ?
How is it different from biotechnology / genetic engineering ?
Synthetic biology is a rational and ground-up construction of biomolecular parts, modules and networks. The construction may be in the native or a non-native setting. The former refers to the redesign of existing pathways and the latter refers to the science of relocating pathways across organisms. Though the term was proposed 1970s, it was formally reintroduced in June 2004 at MIT where the first conference of synthetic biology was held.
Synthetic biology is different from other fields due to following reasons :
1. The design and manufacture of organisms from parts inventory is new to the biological community.
2. Genome-wide data sheet of every part, device and circuit does not exist.
3. The rules of composing an organism are unknown.
4. We are nowhere close to the standard engineering process of taking a computer model to the manufacturing of an organism
Though the scientific community often uses the phrase "genetic engineering" - in practice, genetics was never engineered. This is the first attempt to think like an engineer and design novel molecules, pathways and cells towards useful endpoints...
Synthetic biology is different from other fields due to following reasons :
1. The design and manufacture of organisms from parts inventory is new to the biological community.
2. Genome-wide data sheet of every part, device and circuit does not exist.
3. The rules of composing an organism are unknown.
4. We are nowhere close to the standard engineering process of taking a computer model to the manufacturing of an organism
Though the scientific community often uses the phrase "genetic engineering" - in practice, genetics was never engineered. This is the first attempt to think like an engineer and design novel molecules, pathways and cells towards useful endpoints...