Designing biology
Building genetic circuits and minimal cells, and doing it safely.
Synthetic Biology8 steps
Steps
Take the steps in order or jump to any of them. Readings link to the labs and sources behind them, and the quiz at the end is graded on our server.
- Synthetic biologyStep 1: Read, 50 XP
- Recombinant DNAStep 2: Read, 50 XP
- Gene circuitsStep 3: Read, 50 XP
- Minimal cellStep 4: Read, 50 XP
- Metabolic engineeringStep 5: Read, 50 XP
- BiosafetyStep 6: Read, 50 XP
- Biotech LabStep 7: Lab, 100 XP, once per lab
- Designing biologyStep 8: Quiz, up to 250 XP
About synthetic biology
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.