| Building with Biology |
| Tuesday, 10 June 2008 | |
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Genetic engineering is often described as more of an art than an engineering discipline. The difficult and time consuming methods of transferring individual genes between organisms are unpredictable and often rely on luck. But a revolution could well be under way with synthetic biology, and the standardisation of genetic parts. These standard genetic parts are collectively known as BioBricks, DNA segments encoding particular functions. They are designed to be easily assembled, to communicate by a universal biochemical language, and to fit together like Lego bricks to form working systems. In this respect synthetic biology is very much engineering, and uses these BioBricks to interact with living systems in an analogous way to an electrical engineer assembling components to form a working circuit. In many ways, synthetic biology is analogous to electrical engineering, where circuits are assembled from individual parts that shunt back and forth inputs and outputs in the form of electrical pulses. In synthetic biology we have an organic circuit where the signals are chemicals. Any synthetic biologist is able to search for parts in an online catalogue and pick BioBricks tailored to specification. The designer does not need to understand how each component was synthesised, just how it will perform when pieced together. In both biological and electrical engineering disciplines there is a hierarchy of complexity with basic parts at the bottom and complex systems at the top. Each level requires specialist knowledge, but without necessarily needing any knowledge of the other levels. Electrical engineers begin with a toolbox of components. These range from transistors to diodes and include resistors and LEDs. Each performs a certain task, which is of little use in isolation. However, when the components are linked together they form devices which can attend to more complex tasks, such as computations. A synthetic biologist uses DNA, RNA and proteins as basic parts. Together they form devices able to complete discrete functions, such as a transformation of a chemical regulating a biochemical signal. As these parts are put together, the complexity increases until a system like an integrated circuit is formed. The genetic part can be regarded as the software of the system, and the cellular host as the hardware. But that is where the analogy ends. The engineering system is able to work independently of its surroundings, but the biological system goes on to interact with the environment, moving, responding and reproducing. Amy Chesterton |
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