Technology or method
Synthetic biology
Designing and building new biological parts, circuits and systems.
Emerging researchOpen in Biotech Lab
Synthetic Biology
Designing and building new biological systems.
Synthetic biology treats living things a little like machines that can be designed: scientists build new genetic parts and circuits.
Synthetic biologists build gene circuits such as switches and oscillators, engineer microbes to make useful molecules, and design minimal cells.
The field applies design-build-test cycles, DNA synthesis and modeling to engineer predictable behavior in cells, under biosafety and biosecurity oversight.
Big questions
- Can we design a living cell from scratch?
- How do you build a genetic clock?
- How can engineered organisms be kept safe?
Key ideas
Open any idea in the knowledge graph to see what it connects to, here and in other fields.
Technology or method
Gene circuits
Engineered networks of genes that behave like switches or clocks. Landmark examples were built in bacteria in 2000.
Idea or model
Minimal cell
A cell stripped to the fewest genes it needs. One synthetic version runs on 473 genes, 149 of which had unknown functions.
Emerging researchTechnology or method
Metabolic engineering
Rewiring a microbe's chemistry to make useful molecules, such as a precursor of the antimalarial drug artemisinin in yeast.
Technology or method
Recombinant DNA
DNA joined from different sources, the starting point of genetic engineering and of medicines such as recombinant insulin.
Ethics and safety
Biosafety
Risk-based practices and containment that protect people and the environment when working with biological agents.
Explore it in the labs
Timeline and explorer
A sourced timeline from the double helix to CRISPR therapies, eight technologies labeled established or emerging, and a PCR model.
- Biotechnology
- Synthetic Biology
- Genetics
Interactive explorer
Compare bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses side by side, and model how a bacterial culture grows.
- Microbiology
- Evolution
- Immunology
Current research
Search published papers and preprints in Synthetic Biology, with clear labels for reviews, primary research, clinical trials and preprints.
Search papers in Synthetic BiologySources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
A brief history of synthetic biology (opens the original in a new tab)
Cameron DE, Bashor CJ, Collins JJ (2014). Nature Reviews Microbiology 12:381-390.
Peer-reviewedReviewConstruction of a genetic toggle switch in Escherichia coli (opens the original in a new tab)
Gardner TS, Cantor CR, Collins JJ (2000). Nature 403:339-342.
Two mutually repressing genes form a switch with two stable states.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchA synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators (opens the original in a new tab)
Elowitz MB, Leibler S (2000). Nature 403:335-338.
The repressilator: three repressors wired in a loop produce oscillations.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchDesign and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome (opens the original in a new tab)
Hutchison CA 3rd, Chuang RY, Noskov VN, et al. (2016). Science 351:aad6253.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchCreation of a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome (opens the original in a new tab)
Gibson DG, Glass JI, Lartigue C, et al. (2010). Science 329:52-56.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchHigh-level semi-synthetic production of the potent antimalarial artemisinin (opens the original in a new tab)
Paddon CJ, Westfall PJ, Pitera DJ, et al. (2013). Nature 496:528-532.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchRecombinant DNA Technology (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalConstruction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro (opens the original in a new tab)
Cohen SN, Chang AC, Boyer HW, et al. (1973). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 70:3240-3244.
Recombinant plasmids that replicate in bacteria.
Historical paperPrimary researchHuman insulin from recombinant DNA technology (opens the original in a new tab)
Johnson IS (1983). Science 219:632-637.
Peer-reviewedReviewLaboratory biosafety manual, 4th edition (opens the original in a new tab)
World Health Organization (2020). WHO publications. World Health Organization. Published 2020-12-21.
GuidanceIntergovernmental sourceBiosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), 6th Edition (opens the original in a new tab)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health. CDC Laboratories. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. reference for laboratory biosafety practice.
GuidanceGovernment sourceSummary statement of the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA molecules (opens the original in a new tab)
Berg P, Baltimore D, Brenner S, et al. (1975). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 72:1981-1984.
Scientists' own guidelines for the safe conduct of recombinant DNA research.
Peer-reviewedPerspective