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Published on: March 9, 2017
The promise of synthetic biology
1Institute of Technical Biochemistry, University of Stuttgart, Allmandring 31, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. Juergen.Pleiss@itb.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract:
DNA synthesis has become one of the technological bases of a new concept in biology: synthetic biology. The vision of synthetic biology is a systematic, hierarchical design of artificial, biology-inspired systems using robust, standardized, and well-characterized building blocks. The design concept and examples from four fields of application (genetic circuits, protein design, platform technologies, and pathway engineering) are discussed, which demonstrate the usefulness and the promises of synthetic biology. The vision of synthetic biology is to develop complex systems by simplified solutions using available material and knowledge. Synthetic biology also opens a door toward new biomaterials that do not occur in nature.
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