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Genetic Engineering lacks a few elements of Engineering. Here is what those are and how Synthetic Biology (or Genetic Engineering v2.0) would account for those.
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synthetic biologyBRINGING ENGINEERING BACKINTO GENETIC ENGINEERING
Sachin Singh RawatSchool of Biotech, GGS IP University
Elements of Engineering we must bring to Biology
Standardization of parts
Ease of compilatio
n
Open sourcing
of informatio
nUser Interface
Democratization of technology
Citizen involvemen
t
An Optimistic Comparison
Networks
Computers
Operating systems
Modules
Logic gates
Transistors, diodes
Digital code
Error protection
Data compression
Tissue, cultures
Cells
Ribosomes
Pathways
Biochemical reactions
Proteins, genes
Nucleotides
DNA repair
Overlapping ORFs
Extending the comparison, we are trying to
Edit the source code
Copy source code into another program
Write entirely new code
Reboot
Develop new computers running on similar or new operating systems
Change the protein expressed
Standardize and copy genes into other organisms
Engineer completely new proteins
Reprogram cells
Create new life similar to what we know, and possibly alien-like too
Do-it-yourself Biology
Microsoft, Apple and HP were started in garages
Garage Biology: How ready are we?
DNA synthesis at $ 0.32 /bp
A computer virus is much less devastating than the one we biologists are familiar with
Smart-phones, Internet and digital learning
Develop “Glow-curd” by transfecting yeast DNA isolated from curd by GFP plasmid ordered over eBay
BioBricksDNA sequences of defined structure and function sharing a common interface, flanked by universal downstream and upstream sequences
Initiated by Tom Knight, Drew Endy, Chris Voigt at MIT
Parts, devices and systems
Parts encode basic functions like promoter, proteins etc
Devices are collections of parts that implement some user-defined function, for instance a riboregulator that produces a fluorescent protein on encountering a certain environmental signal
Systems perform high-level tasks which involve integration of multiple devices
Some from the iGEMBactoblood: A substitute for natural blood with properties of RBCs, without any blood group specificity
E. chromi: A microbe that gives out colour if a particular pathogen is present in water sample
Cell-to-cell communication system that allows propagation of a set of instructions coded onto a plasmid
Cancer specific RNAi mediated cell destruction
A biological system that senses glucose concentration and releases insulin in response
Arsenic bio-detector
Harvesting cellulose and light to power butanol biosynthesis
Genome Compiler
Junkomics: Making proteins from non-coding DNA
Develop non-coding region into a BioBrick
Add a promoter and other transcription machinery
Couple with a module to secret this protein on the cell surface
Insert as a plasmid in a minimal organism
Obtain the protein produced and check for any therapeutic or industrial use
Wildest SynBio ScenariosA microbe which ingested with water comes out in faeces, coloured according to your gut bacteria
Microbes which live only to produce power/proteins of interest
A virus that corrects network perturbations in diseases
A seed that grows into a house
Microbe(s) which help us colonize Mars
Thank You