• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, June 5, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Synthetic biology applies engineering approach to biological components

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
November 9, 2013
in Bioengineering, Synthetic Biology
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

“We’re going to be able to write DNA. What do we want to say?” Professor Drew Endy of biological engineering asked this question as he introduced the first international meeting on synthetic biology, which was held at the Tang Center last month.

Synthetic biology applies engineering approach to biological components

Characterized as “the first conference of its type, anywhere” by Thomas F. Knight Jr., senior research scientist in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the meeting brought together biologists and computer scientists from around the world.

Simply put, synthetic biology means “leveraging natural structures as ways of building things on the molecular scale,” said Knight. He, along with Endy and CSAIL research affiliate Randy Rettberg, spoke at the conference, called Synthetic Biology 1.0.

“If you can write DNA, you’re no longer limited to what is but to what you could make,” said Endy. “The science you get out of that is more than ‘Here’s this gene and what it does.’ It’s ‘What are the physical limitations of biological systems?'”

Work in synthetic biology has progressed for two decades, but researchers are only at the preliminary stages of being able to engineer biological systems, said Endy. He compared synthetic biology today to mechanical engineering in the 1800s, when machine components had yet to be standardized. Thanks to the eventual completion of that process, “we no longer have to think about the direction of the threading on a screw,” said Endy. Similarly, biological engineers at MIT and elsewhere are working to standardize biological parts, such as ribosomes and other cell components.

One advantage of doing research in this new field at MIT is that “there’s a nice mix of people here who have deep knowledge of engineering theory and processes. There are people here who remember when engineering fields weren’t established. They can apply the experiences of the past to this new field,” said Endy.

In a talk titled “Biological Simplicity,” Knight used Legos to demonstrate the usefulness of standardized parts.

“You can put them together however you want,” said Knight. “Can we construct a chromosome from standardized parts?”

Holding up a silicon chip, the former silicon designer explained that he applies to biological systems the same tools he used to control the complexity of a billion-component silicon chip. He pointed out that while biologists celebrate the “wonderful complexity” of biological systems, “engineers cherish the simplicity of systems.”

For instance, he described his work on rewriting the genome of a microorganism called mesoplasma. One way to do this is to “take stuff out until it breaks. An alternative to understanding complexity is to remove it,” he said to laughter from the audience. He added that this approach could lead to “new science and novel engineering.”

“There was a sense that this was the beginning of something that could be important,” Knight said after the conference. “There’ve been many people doing this for a long time. It’s good to realize we all exist and that there’s a set of shared goals.”

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by MIT News Office, Lauren J. Clark.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Why is the first Turkish bioengineering promotion website, Biyomuhendislik.com, so important?

February 4, 2023
blank

Robo-fish

September 19, 2016

Mice born from ‘tricked’ eggs

September 17, 2016

UCLA researchers use stem cells to grow 3-D lung-in-a-dish

September 16, 2016
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • plants

    Plants remove cancer causing toxins from air

    40 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Element creation in the lab deepens understanding of surface explosions on neutron stars

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Deep sea surveys detect over five thousand new species in future mining hotspot

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • How life and geology worked together to forge Earth’s nutrient rich crust

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Phase 3 SWOG Cancer Research Network trial, led by a City of Hope researcher, demonstrates one-year progression-free survival in 94% of patients with Stage 3 or 4 classic Hodgkin lymphoma who received a checkpoint inhibitor combined with chemotherapy

The promise of novel FolRα-targeting antibody drug conjugate in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer

Carbon-based stimuli-responsive nanomaterials: classification and application

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 50 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In