Authors: Sismour, A Michael; Benner, Steven A

Source: Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Volume 5, Number 11, 1 November 2005 , pp. 1409-1414(6)

Publisher: Informa Healthcare

Abstract:

Chemistry is a broadly powerful discipline in contemporary science because it has the ability to create new forms of the matter that it studies. By doing so, chemistry can test models that connect molecular structure to behaviour without having to rely on what nature has provided. This creation, known as ‘synthesis’, began to be applied to living systems in the 1980s as recombinant DNA technologies allowed biologists to deliberately change the molecular structure of the microbes that they studied, and automated chemical sy­nthesis of DNA became widely available to support these activities. The impact of the information that has emerged has made biologists aware of a truism that has long been known in chemistry: synthesis drives discovery and understanding in ways that analysis cannot. Synthetic biology is now setting an ambitious goal: to recreate in artificial systems the emergent properties found in natural biology. By doing so, it is advancing our understanding of the molecular basis of genetics in ways that analysis alone cannot. More p­ractically, it has yielded artificial genetic systems that improve the h­ealthcare of some 400,000 Americans annually. Synthetic biology is now set to take the next step, to create artificial Darwinian systems by direct co­nstruction. Supported by the National Science Foundation as part of its Chemical Bonding program, this work cannot help but generate clarity in our understanding of how biological systems work.

Keywords: artificial genetic systems; biological networks; Darwinian systems; emergent properties; logic circuit; ribozyme; synthetic biology

Document Type: Editorial

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1517/14712598.5.11.1409

Publication date: 2005-11-01

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