Synthetic
Biology utilizes the design and construction principles of engineering to
develop new biological components and systems or embed novel functions into
existing ones, and standardize their behavior. This systematic approach to
improving and increasing the programmability and robustness of biological
components is expected to lead to the facile assembly of artificial biological
components and integrated systems. While there has been considerable success in
the field, it is still far from its full potential, with major challenges including
standardization of parts so that they function reliably, with functional
stability in face of mutations and other biophysical constraints such as noise,
and integration of different parts.
The ambitious
goals and interdisciplinary nature of this new research field have prompted the
advancement of molecular biology techniques to meet the need for rapid development
of biological building blocks as well as for their functional characterization and
quality control. In parallel, researchers in the field of Systems Biology have
recognized that the development of novel components necessitates advanced
computational design tools that are capable of analyzing the behavior of parts
and of constructing synthetic biological networks. This volume aims to review
the latest developments in molecular biology techniques that find use in
Synthetic Biology and to present some of the enabling computational tools that
will aid in systematizing the design and construction of parts and systems. For
a more comprehensive set of the latter, readers should look for our sister volume.
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