(Re-)Construction, characterization and modeling of genomes for synthetic biology

Maria Suarez Diez (1) , Carolyn Lam (1) , Audrey Leprince (1) , Vitor Martins dos Santos (1)

1 Systems and Synthetic Biology Group

Synthetic biology is the rational (re-)design of biological systems with useful properties. In its engineering perspective, it aims at transforming biotechnology into a true engineering discipline with the corresponding reliabilities and accuracies in design. Under this view, the building blocks of complex systems are well-characterized biological modules, designed and optimized for specific functions that can be assembled into circuits to perform complex biological functions. Synthetic biology is inherently cross-disciplinary and relies on tools such as computational models of complex systems, bioinformatics and experimental techniques for exploring interactions among the basic building blocks and to predict new properties emerging from their interaction among themselves and with the environment. The development and characterization of new biological scaffolds which are able to host designed circuit, optimized for new targeted functionalities, and endowed with a full quantitative and predictive model remains an open challenge for this new field. Here we will describe current efforts to produce standardized scaffolds for synthetic biology.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Maria Suarez Diez, Carolyn Lam, Audrey Leprince, Vitor Martins dos Santos. (Re-)Construction, characterization and modeling of genomes for synthetic biology. Biotechnology Journal, 2009, 4 (10), pp.1382. ⟨10.1002/biot.200900173⟩. ⟨hal-00526194⟩