Research Catalog

Title

Synthetic biology : building on nature's inspiration : interdisciplinary research team summaries : Conference, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, Irvine, California, November 20-22, 2009 / National Academies Keck Futures Initiative.

Author

National Academies (U.S.). Keck Futures Initiative. Conference (2009 : Irvine, Calif.)

Publication

Washington : National Academies Press, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 106 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Synthetic biology is an innovative and growing field that unites engineering and biology. It builds on the powerful research that came about as a result of a recombinant DNA technology and genome sequencing. By definition, synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary enterprise comprising biologists of many specialties, engineers, physicists, computer scientists and others. It promises a fundamentally deeper understanding of how living systems work and the capacity to recreate them for medicine, public health and the environment, including renewable energy. Synthetic Biology: Building on Nature's Inspiration discusses new foundational technologies and tools required to make biology easier to engineer, considers ethical issues unique to synthetic biology, explores how synthetic biology can lead to an understanding of the principles underlying natural genetic circuits and debates how synthetic biology can be used to answer fundamental biological questions"--Publisher's description.

Subject

• Bioengineering > Congresses
• Bioengineering
• Biotechnology > Congresses
• Biotechnology
• Synthetic Biology
• Synthetic biology > Congresses
• Synthetic biology

Genre/Form

• Conference proceedings.
• Congress.

Note

• "...summaries in this publication are based on IDR team discussions during the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference on Synthetic Biology held at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California, November 20-22, 2009"--T.p. verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

What new foundational technologies and tools are required to make biology easier to engineer? -- What are the significant differences, if any, between risk assessment capacity and religious analyses of the moral for synthetic permissibility biology applications and other biotechnology application? -- Reconstructing gene circuitry: how can synthetic biology lead us to an understanding of the principles underlying natural genetic circuits and to the discovery of new biology? -- Designing communities of cells: how do we create communication and collaboration between cells to allow for specialization and division of labor? -- Why are human-designed biological circuits and devices fragile and inaccurate relative to their natural counterparts? -- How can genomics be leveraged to develop coherent approaches for rapidly exploring the biochemical diversity in and engineering of non-model organisms? -- How do we move beyond genetics to engage chemical and physical approaches to synthetic biology? -- What is the role of evolution and evolvability in synthetic biology? -- How do we maximally capitalize on the promise of synthetic biology?

ISBN

• 9780309149426 (pbk.)
• 0309149428 (pbk.)

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries