Synthetic Biology—The Synthesis of Biology

Synthetic biology envisages the engineering of man-made living biomachines from standardized components that can perform pre-defined functions in a (self-)controlled manner. Different research strategies and interdisciplinary efforts are pursued to implement engineering principles to biology. The "top-down" strategy exploits nature's incredible diversity of existing, natural parts to construct synthetic compositions of genetic, metabolic or signalling networks with predictable and controllable properties. This mainly application-driven approach results in living factories that produce drugs, biofuels, biomaterials and fine chemicals and results in living pills that are based on engineered cells with the capacity to autonomously detect and treat disease states in vivo. In contrast, the "bottom-up" strategy seeks to be independent of existing living systems by designing biological systems from scratch and synthesizing artificial biological entities not found in nature. This more knowledge-driven approach investigates the reconstruction of minimal biological systems that are capable of performing basic biological phenomena, such as self-organization, self-replication and self-sustainability. Moreover, the syntheses of artificial biological units, such as synthetic nucleotides or amino acids, and their implementation into polymers inside living cells currently set the boundaries between natural and artificial biological systems. In particular, the in vitro design, synthesis and transfer of complete genomes into host cells and the application of efficient genome-wide intervention techniques point to the future of synthetic biology: the creation of living designer cells with tailored desirable properties for biomedicine and biotechnology.