Functional Synthetic Biology

TL;DR

Functional Synthetic Biology shifts focus from genetic sequences to biological functions, enabling more flexible, reusable, and predictable engineering of biological systems through new design paradigms and tooling.

Contribution

It introduces a paradigm change in synthetic biology by emphasizing function over sequence, promoting modularity, reuse, and improved predictability in biological system design.

Findings

Decouples device engineering from application specifics

Enhances design reuse and data sharing

Improves predictability and reduces costs

Abstract

Synthetic biologists have made great progress over the past decade in developing methods for modular assembly of genetic sequences and in engineering biological systems with a wide variety of functions in various contexts and organisms. However, current paradigms in the field entangle sequence and functionality in a manner that makes abstraction difficult, reduces engineering flexibility, and impairs predictability and design reuse. Functional Synthetic Biology aims to overcome these impediments by focusing the design of biological systems on function, rather than on sequence. This reorientation will decouple the engineering of biological devices from the specifics of how those devices are put to use, requiring both conceptual and organizational change, as well as supporting software tooling. Realizing this vision of Functional Synthetic Biology will allow more flexibility in how devices are used, more opportunity for reuse of devices and data, improvements in predictability, and reductions in technical risk and cost.