A Systematic Review of Synthetic Biology - A New Era in Biopharmaceutical Drug Development

Abstract

Although biotechnology dates back to ancient times, biotechnology as we know it started with the scientific advances elucidating fermentation, microorganisms, protein, and DNA biochemistry. Today, modern biotechnology that uses recombinant DNA technology as its primary tool is undergoing transformation into synthetic biology. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 was awarded in part to Prof. Frances Arnold, for her work on enzyme evolution, who is also the founder of a synthetic biology company. Synthetic biology was first coined in 1990s and was initiated by engineers who have dreamed of joining engineering principles with the concept of microbial cell factories, parallel to the genomic era and the birth of systems biology. It is built on the notion of modifying and improving whole new metabolic pathways, not only proteins or enzymes. Recent advances in genome editing tools, expansion of non-natural amino acid incorporation, addition of new “letters” to the DNA alphabet and a large spectrum of new developments push the boundaries of our imaginations. Many funding and investment schemes in our country are currently focusing on “modern” biotechnology and bioengineering, but without further ado we must urgently focus on tomorrow’s technology, synthetic biology.