http://stonedscientist.com Life Science - We'll Tell It Like It Is! Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:29:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://stonedscientist.com/2010/02/01/new-challenges-for-synthetic-biology/ http://stonedscientist.com/2010/02/01/new-challenges-for-synthetic-biology/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:11:59 +0000 Jessica P. http://stonedscientist.com/?p=536 Synthetic biology is a modern discipline that tries to manipulate cells and program them to perform some activities useful for us. Different products or services may be provided by cells, for instance production of biofuel or toxin identification into a body as well as controlled insulin release. Synthetic biology requires a strict control of the system, but many parts involved into the process have not been known yet.
For instance, DNA sequence in the promoter region is not always well characterized and this is a crucial point to increase cell productivity. So, the first point to be clarified to obtain results from synthetic biology is the knowledge of expression system. Furthermore, it’s important to understand how all parts can work together. This is another challenge for synthetic biology because of the complexity of regulation mechanism into the cells. Circuits can work in an unpredictable manner and results are often few understandable. Finally, even if the circuit seems to work very well, the system could not be reliable in all situations and it could fall because of genetic mutations which could arise in any time. In summary, synthetic biology is an important challenge for scientists for the next future. Biofuel, toxin detection and insulin release are only three of different purposes for which this discipline must be applied.

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