Life redesigned to suit the engineering crowd

Abstract

Engineers called biosynthesist are reassembling sets of genes to fashion novel metabolic pathways, build new microbes and even rewrite the genetic code. Recent feats of genetic manipulation include the development of standardized genetic parts called "BioBricks," and microbes containing a mix of genes enabling them to make a chemical precursor of the anti-malarial drug, artemisinin. Biosynthesists are also encoding microbes to produce proteins built from unnatural amino acids, designing bacteria to produce hydrogen-based alternative fuels, and yeasts that make ethanol from cellulose. Recognizing that synthetic biology is not risk free, biosynthesists drafted the SB2 Declaration, suggesting ways to monitor and regulate this new field.