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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.