Synthetic biology is a new area of science that entails the application of engineering principles to biology. Synthetic biology focuses on creating technologies for designing and building biological organisms. It involves biologists, engineers, software developers, scientists from other disciplines, collaborating to understand how genetic parts work together, and then to combine them to produce useful applications. Synthetic biology combines the chemical synthesis of DNA with increasing knowledge of genomics to enable researchers to swiftly manufacture categorized DNA sequences and assemble them into new genomes. (A genome is the sum total of the genetic material of an organism.)
What is the difference between synthetic biology and systems biology?
Systems biology studies complex natural biological systems as integrated wholes, using mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and comparative analysis. Synthetic biology studies how to build artificial biological systems, using many of the same tools and experimental techniques. The emphasis is on utilizing parts of natural biological systems, identifying and simplifying them, and using them as components of an engineered biological system.
What is the difference between synthetic biology and genetic editing?
Synthetic biology is similar to genome editing because both involve changing an organism’s genetic code. However, the difference between the two methods is how that change is made. In synthetic biology, scientists piece together long sequences of synthesized DNA and insert them into an organism’s genome. In genome editing, scientists typically make smaller changes to the organism’s own DNA. Genome editing tools may also be utilized to add or delete small sequences of DNA in the genome.
What do synthetic biologists hope to achieve?
These scientists what to identify and catalog standardized genomic parts that can be used and quickly synthesized to build new biological systems, to re-design existing biological parts, and expand the set of natural protein functions for new processes. Engineering microbes to produce all of the necessary enzymes and biological functions to perform complex multistep production of natural products is also part of the purpose. They hope that by designing and constructing a genome for a natural virus or bacterium, they can add to what science can accomplish.
Researchers have analyzed the genomes of microbes to identify biological processes that can replace chemical reactions to make new products, more environmentally-friendly and less toxic manufacturing operations, and streamline production.
How is synthetic biology playing a role in vaccine development?
When novel pathogens with pandemic potential emerge, researchers and epidemiologists, rush to develop vaccines to block them. The traditional method of designing vaccines is a decades-old and slow, laborious process. Synthetic biology can speed up the process, and synthetic biology-based vaccines could be proved to be safer and more efficient.
Synthetic biologists believe they can do better. Using computers, they are designing new, self-assembling protein nanoparticles studded with viral proteins, called antigens: these porcupine-like particles would be the guts of a vaccine. If tests in lab animals of the first such nanoparticle vaccine are any indication, it should be more potent than either old-fashioned viral vaccines like those for influenza or the viral antigens without the nanoparticle.
Is it possible to synthesize an organism’s entire genome?
In 2002, scientists in the United States synthesized a viral genome. The first synthesized bacterial genome was completed in 2008 with the synthesis of the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium that can cause urinary and genital tract infections (STDs) in humans. Scientists proved that it was possible to create the poliovirus from synthesized genetic components. This illustrates that synthetic biology could be used to develop biological weapons.
Projects that propose to synthesize entire genomes raise important ethical questions about potential hazards and benefits to society.
Many organizations involved in bioethics, including the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, have expressed the importance of public engagement and dialogue in the governance of emerging synthetic biology and genome-editing technologies.
