A central tenet of synthetic biology is that by “black-boxing” the complexity of biology, engineers will ultimately be able to manufacture many easy-to-use genetic devices that function as expected. SynBERC researchers reported a major step towards to this goal by publishing the first formalized datasheet for a standard biological device, as well as a generic process for developing many such devices and their accompanying datasheets.

The first blockbuster drug produced via synthetic biology principles is about to go into large-scale production, offering hope for an affordable treatment to the 500 million people in the world who suffer from malaria.

In their November 2005 article Environmentally Controlled Invasion of Cancer Cells by Engineered Bacteria, SynBERC researhers Chris Anderson, Adam Arkin, and Chris Voigt describe a method for engineering the interaction between bacteria and cancer cells to depend on heterologous environmental signals.

Efforts to manipulate living organisms have raised the question of whether engineering principles of hierarchy, abstraction and design can be applied to biological systems. In this article in Genome Biology, Adam Arkin and Daniel Fletcher consider the practical challenges to controlling living organisms that must be surmounted, or at least managed, if synthetic biology and cellular bioengineering are to be productive.

The various devices constructed from well-characterized standard biological parts can be integrated to form systems. A system, when comprised within a chassis, will then form an organism capable of performing specified functions. Testbeds, through their need for parts and devices integrated into a chassis, will help drive development of the thrusts. SynBERC currently has two testbeds:

Leader: George Church

The goal of this thrust is to develop a limited number of chassis that should serve a wide range of activities (testbeds). More specifically, we are working toward the following goals:

Leader: Christopher Voigt

Leader: Tanja Kortemme

The most basic unit in the design of synthetic biological systems are parts – pieces of DNA, RNA, or protein that encode and/or can carry out a defined biological function(s) – binding to another molecule or catalyzing a reaction. Parts can be assembled in combination to make devices that carry out more complex functions. Thus, a core thrust of SynBERC is the design and manipulation of standard biological parts. Over the last year, researchers in the Parts Thrust have focused on:

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells or the redesign of existing biological systems. Synthetic biology builds on the advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology and seeks to transform biology in the same way that synthesis transformed chemistry and integrated circuit design transformed computing.