synthetic biology - introduction 1

8/7/2019 Synthetic Biology - Introduction 1

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Synthetic Biology:

Are we playing God?


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W ith SyntheticBiology, we canhave made-to-order

life forms.

Lets meet Craig Venter.


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Craig Venter andcolleagues:described thestepwise creation of

a bacterialchromosome and itssuccessful transfer of it into a bacterium,replacing the nativeDNA

$140 million, 2 0 scientists, more thana decade


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T he Issue

30 years ago, there was geneticengineering.

Genomes could be mapped and genescan be manipulated as desired.

Today, there is Synthetic Biology.


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Synthetic Biology:

Building Life From Scratch(SynBio, Synthetic Genomics, Constructive Biology,Systems Biology)

T he design and construction of new biological parts,devices and systems that do not exist in the naturalworld

T he redesign of existing biological systems to performspecific tasks

T he beginning of the transition from being able to read genetic code to the early stages of being able to writethe code.


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SynBio:T

he Convergence of 4

Main Fields


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Synthetic biology may be theconverging technology , par excellence .

Delve into the biographies of synbio sluminaries and you ll find Ph.D.s in

chemical, electrical and biochemical engineering, physics and pharmacology

(and surprisingly few biologists).- Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology, ETC Group, 2007


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T he Basics of Synthetic Biology

T he core belief of SynBio:All parts of life can be synthetically made,

engineered and assembled to produceworking organisms.

Living Organism =DNA (software that instructs life)

+ cell membrane (hardware / wetware)


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T he Objectives of SynBio*

KnowledgeGoals

Smart MaterialsT herapies

*Forster, C. and G. Church. Synthetic Biology Projects in Vitro .


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T he 2 Classes of SynBio

In Vivo: Bacterial Engineering Redesign of metabolic

pathways for pollutionremediation

Synthesis of drugs

In Vitro Decreased

dependence on cells

Synthesis of biopolyners

May ulitimately allowcell-free self-

replication


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SynBio: A Brief History

1960 s: Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel PrizeW inner

Developed a protocol for building DNA chainswith the 4 bases A, T , C, G 1970 : DNA of artificial gene with 2 07 bpwas constructed

1976 : T he synthetic gene worked!


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T he 1970 s and Gene Foundries

Gene Foundries: gene synthesiscompanies

Sell made-to-order sequences over theInternetGenen T ech, T he W orlds 1 st CommercialBiotech Company Based in California, invented a faster,

automated method of gene synthesis


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As of 2 007 , there are 66 DNA

synthesis companies in the world.


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W ith SynBio, life is cheap and fast!

DNA synthesis is cheap.2006 : $1 to $2 per base pair.

Epoch Biolabs: $0 .85 per base pair

Codon Devices: $ 0 .79 per base pair

For oligos, $ 0 .10 per base pair (George Church, Harvard University)

DNA synthesis is fast. 1 Kbp: 2 weeks

Craig Venter, T he Record Holder:

Virus phiX 174 : 5, 386 bp in < 2 weeks

But there were errors


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SynBio and T he T heoretical Price

On Human LifeHumans have 3 billion base pairsPrice: $ 2.5 billion dollars


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T he 5 Main Approaches to SynBio1 . Choosing among different options for codons to express a specific

amino acid.S ome codons work better in bacteria than in plants.

2. Removing unnecessary codons to get a sleeker code.

3 . Developing standard parts and keeping an inventory of these.S tandard parts can be assembled into more complex genetic systems.

4 . Design of new artificial amino acids not found in nature.

5. Building of an artificial protocell that will contain and express DNA.


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Genetic Code: Messier T han

Computer CodesGene regulation occurs.Because of this, the genome must be

mapped in order to produce a desiredprotein.Synthetic biologists: Rebuild the genetic pathway Alter the genetic pathway


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4 . Synthetic ConservationL ife: In vivo In vitro In silico


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5. Synthetic Commodities


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Synthetic Commodities

SynBio may facilitateexclusive monopolyclaims based on digital

DNA sequences.

Jay Keasling and YulexCorporation: Rubber

production by threemicrobes ( E . coli, S .cerevisiae, A. nidulans )


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6 . SynBio Safety

1 . Living organisms evolve and mutate.R eplication is far from perfect. The more complex the organism is, the

faster it mutates.

2. T heres still a lot that we dont know about living organisms.

3 . Living organisms can escape and interact with the environment.De novo synthetic organisms may be built from multiple genetic

elements that lack a clear pedigree.The risks attending the accidental release of such as organism from the

laboratory would be extremely difficult to assess in advance.

synthetic biology - introduction 1

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