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Cell Physiology - Question 4

Terms in this set (21)

Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
Common to many explanations is the idea of synthetic biology as the application of engineering principles to the fundamental components of biology
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
All living organisms contain an instruction set that determines what they look like and what they do. These instructions are encoded in the organisms's DNA -- long and complex strings of molecules embedded in every living cell. This is an organism's genetic code (or "genome").
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
Humans have been altering the genetic code of plants and animals for millennia, by selectively breeding individuals with desirable features
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
they have begun to take genetic information associated with useful features from one organism, and add it into another one. This is the basis of genetic engineering, and has allowed researchers to speed up the process of developing new breeds of plants and animals.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
More recent advances however, have enabled scientists to make new sequences of DNA from scratch. By combining these advances with the principles of modern engineering, scientists can now use computers and laboratory chemicals to design organisms that do new things
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
In general its purpose can be described as the design and construction of novel artificial biological pathways, organisms or devices, or the redesign of existing natural biological systems.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
Synthetic biology is the convergence of advances in chemistry, biology, computer science, and engineering that enables us to go from idea to product faster, cheaper, and with greater precision than ever before.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells or the redesign of existing biological systems.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
Synthetic biology builds on the advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology and seeks to transform biology in the same way that synthesis transformed chemistry and integrated circuit design transformed computing.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.
The element that distinguishes synthetic biology from traditional molecular and cellular biology is the focus on the design and construction of core components (parts of enzymes, genetic circuits, metabolic pathways, etc.) that can be modeled, understood, and tuned to meet specific performance criteria, and the assembly of these smaller parts and devices into larger integrated systems to solve specific problems.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
Life Technologies has a proven track record in vaccine development. It provides the molecular engineering tools and services necessary to sequence genetic information to formulate vaccines and other treatments in a more efficient and timely manner than current practices, allowing researchers to save time.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
Life Technologies scientists developed the custom gene constructs that serve as the basis for HIV vaccine candidates. The gene sequences were custom-designed by scientists at GeneArt® - which merged with Life Technologies in December 2010 - and the University of Regensburg, and then tested in a phase I clinical trial by the EuroVacc Foundation. The trial proved the prophylactic vaccine to be safe and well tolerated, triggering a strong and lasting immune response in 90 percent of the candidates. Additional trials are ongoing.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
DSM, a Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, was one of the first companies to utilize synthetic biology, dramatically improving an existing process for commercial production of Cephalexin, a synthetic antibiotic. Starting with a penicillin-producing microbial strain, DSM introduced and optimized two enzyme-encoding genes for a one-step direct fermentation of adipoyl-7-ADCA, which could then be converted into Cephalexin via two enzymatic steps. The new process replaced a 13-step chemical process, resulting in significant cost and energy savings. DSM has gone on to build a business in antibiotics, vitamins, enzymes, organic acids, and performance materials within one of its emerging business areas called Biobased Products and Services.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
Advances in synthetic biology have enabled DSM to develop recombinant yeast capable of co-fermenting both hexoses and pentoses. DSM introduced enzymes from native xylose-assimilating organisms to S. cerevisiae, allowing co-fermentation of xylose and arabinose along with glucose.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
INzyme™ technology from Agrivida, a novel approach to synthetic biology, provides processors and biorefiners the ability to directly control dormant biodegrading enzymes that have been engineered into the biomass. After harvest, these enzymes are activated in a way that greatly reduces the energy, chemical and other pretreatments traditionally required to convert the plant material to sugar. Agrivida's INzyme™ technology decreases a critical bottleneck in bioproducts production, allowing significantly improved production, reducing the cost and quantity of enzymes needed to produce cellulosic biofuels and renewable chemicals and reducing production facility capital and operating costs.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

TECHNIQUES:
Using synthetic biology and its directed evolution technologies, Codexis discovered and developed a transaminase capable of enabling the new biocatalytic route, which is currently in scale-up towards commercial manufacture. In this instance, there was no known enzyme that could perform the reaction required to enable the biocatalytic route. By designing and generating new enzyme variants, Codexis was able to identify a novel enzyme that provided detectable initial activity. This enzyme was then improved greater than 25,000-fold in order to generate the highly active, stable, enantioselective and practical enzyme from a starting activity that did not previously exist in the natural world.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
Synthetic biology potentially has a wide range of applications. Many of these may be biomedical.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
For example, an initiative called the Artemisinin Project is planning to use synthetic biology to help treat malaria. Their aim is to manufacture a low-cost, semi-synthetic version of the malaria medication artemisinin. To this end, the team is assembling a pathway of genes taken from the Artemisia annua plant and other sources. This artificial gene sequence will then be spliced into the DNA of micro-organisms. The hope is to produce high qualities of artemisinin at low cost using industrial fermentation processes already common in the biotechnology industry. If this goal is reached then millions of lives may be saved.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
Other medical applications of synthetic biology may include new biocosmetics that contain synthetically-produced stem cells to help regenerate the skin.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
Research is also already underway that hopes to use synthetic biology in the manufacture of improved biochemicals. At present one of the most promising alternatives to oil-based plastics is polylactic acid (PLA). This is currently made from corn or sugar cane using a two-stage process. Firstly the agricultural ingredients are fermented with bacterium to produce lactic acid. A second chemical, post-processing stage is then needed to link the short lactic acid molecules together into long polymer chains. However, as reported here, a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have already succeeded in producing PLA directly in a single process using a re-designed E.colibacterium with a set of synthetic genetic pathways. Once commercialized, this will allow large quantities of PLA to be produced as a cost-effective substitute to petroleum-based plastics.
Discuss synthetic biology (artificial life) techniques, ramifications and potential applications.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
In a similar vein, OPX Biotechnologies is using synthetic biology to develop a bioacrylic.
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