SYSTEMS BIOLOGY

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY –THE MAN MADE FUTURE

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY is the discipline that embraces the emerging

ability to design, synthesize and evolve new genomes or biomimetic systems. ‘WACLAW
SZYBALASKI’ introduced the term synthetic biology. It will enable the design of biological
systems in a rational and synthetic way. Synthetic biology combines knowledge from various
disciplines including molecular biology, engineering, mathematics and physics to design and build
novel proteins, genetic circuits and metabolic networks. It will create highly generic capabilities for
the use of bio-inspired tools. It is used as field of research, because it provides the conceptual tools
needed for the rational construction redesigning of biological circuitry.

Now, Synthetic biology is adopting a very ambitious agenda in building

novel biological entities on an ever more complex level for novel applications. It will open the doors
to promising new applications, such as the production of alternative energy sources in live cells,
biological computing, and bio-directed fabrication. New applications can be obtained by coupling
gene regulatory networks with biosensor modules and biological response systems. Researchers
interfaced a toggle switch with the SOS pathway detecting DNA damage as the biosensor module
and biofilm formation as response output and it can also be applied for metabolism, cell cycle,
growth differentiation and synthesis of pharmaceutical products. Engineering interactions between
programmed bacteria and mammalian cells will lead to exciting medical applications. Recently, E.
coli cells were engineered to invade specific mammalian cells exhibiting tumorigenic properties.
Potential applications of Synthetic Biology range very widely across scientific and engineering
discipline from Medicine to Energy Generation. Engineered Biological devices based on modular
assemblies of genes and proteins might be able to produce through synthetic biology. Synthetic
biologists have also used engineered enzymes and metabolic pathways that interface with the
endogenous cellular biochemical machinery to produce compounds with pharmaceutical and
environmental applications. Synthetic biology will help the treatment of disease move beyond
traditional approaches by allowing us to develop 'smart' therapies, where the therapeutic agent can
perform computation and logic operations and make complex decisions.
 Synthetic biological life forms with DNA/RNA programming, utilizing traditional
biological building blocks such as proteins, with a genome synthesized from scratch in a laboratory.
This is distinct from genetically engineered biological life forms which are based on tweaks to pre
existing genomes and synthetic nonbiologicals, where DNA/RNA and traditional biological building
blocks are not used and all functionality is engineered from scratch, like any machine. We can
imagine many possible futures, but we cannot predict how events will actually unfold. Formal
scenarios can provide a useful, structured basis for considering plausible future circumstances
enabling us to more easily identify key implications and any choices or policy considerations we
might need to take either now or in the future. Detection systems with improved sensitivity such as
sensing of explosives and biological warfare agents are the outputs of synthetic biology. It
includes the broad redefinition and expansion of biotechnology, with the ultimate goals of being able
to design and build engineered biological systems that process information, manipulate chemicals,
fabricate materials and structures. Drugs prepare “BIO-DEGRADABLE PLASTICS” from
rationally engineered microbes."HYDRGEN AND METHONOL” is prepared by converting
feedstock.

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES: Several of the fundamental scientific issues and current applied
objectives of synthetic biology overlap with biotechnology and systems biology. Device
Fabrication and characterization, system design and synthesize, ebling infrastructure such as DNA
synthesis and sequencing, micro fluids, protein Engineering. Recent achievements include the
development of sophisticated non-native behaviors such as bi-stability, oscillations; proteins
customized for biosensing, optimized drug synthesis and programmed spatial pattern formation
One day, some synthetic biologists will become capable of designing a super virus that can wipe
out humanity. Synthetic biology will defiantly become a real threat in future, we have to start taking
steps now to ensure that the field has proper regulation and over sight.

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED BY:

D.PRATAP (pratap66666@gmail.com)