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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Automated Robotic Liquid Handling Assembly of Modular DNA Devices
Published on: December 1, 2017
A whole more than the sum of its synthetic parts
Jeffrey V Wong1, Hao Song, Lingchong You
1Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
Abstract:
Synthetic biology is the realization of systems with desired behavior using biological materials. A recent addition to the field is a bipartite consortium of the bacterium Escherichia coli in which each species harbors complementary gene circuits that actuate only when both are present above a critical density. This bacterial "consensus" system, functional in liquid, solid, and biofilm niches, represents a novel strategy that raises the bar in terms of the specificity and complexity of tasks performed by engineered organisms.
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