Engineering genetic circuits: advancements in genetic design automation tools and standards for synthetic biology

Lukas Buecherl; Chris J Myers

doi:10.1016/j.mib.2022.102155

Engineering genetic circuits: advancements in genetic design automation tools and standards for synthetic biology

Curr Opin Microbiol. 2022 Aug:68:102155. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2022.102155. Epub 2022 May 16.

Authors

Lukas Buecherl¹, Chris J Myers²

Affiliations

¹ Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Colorado Boulder, 1111 Engineering Drive, Boulder, 80309 CO, United States.
² Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 425 UCB, Boulder, 80309 CO, United States. Electronic address: chris.myers@colorado.edu.

PMID: 35588683
DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2022.102155

Abstract

Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a field at the intersection of biology and engineering. Inspired by engineering principles, researchers use defined parts to build functionally defined biological circuits. Genetic design automation (GDA) allows scientists to design, model, and analyze their genetic circuits in silico before building them in the lab, saving time, and resources in the process. Establishing SynBio's future is dependent on GDA, since the computational approach opens the field to a broad, interdisciplinary community. However, challenges with part libraries, standards, and software tools are currently stalling progress in the field. This review first covers recent advancements in GDA, followed by an assessment of the challenges ahead, and a proposed automated genetic design workflow for the future.

Keywords: Genetic Design Automaton; Part libraries; Software Tools; Standards; Synthetic Biology.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Automation
Gene Regulatory Networks*
Genetic Engineering
Software
Synthetic Biology*
Workflow