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Published March 1, 2003 | public
Journal Article

Evolutionary Design Of Genetic Circuits And Cell-Cell Communications

Abstract

Synthetic genetic circuits are artificial networks of transcriptional control elements inserted into living cells in order to 'program' cellular behavior. We can extend this application to programming population behavior by incorporating cell-cell communications capabilities. By designing and building such networks, cellular circuit engineers expect to gain insight into how natural genetic networks function with remarkable robustness, stability, and adaptability to changing environments. Programmed cells also have promising applications in biotechnology and medicine. A major challenge that biological circuit engineers face is the difficulty of predicting circuit performance at the design stage, with the consequence that actual construction requires significant experimental effort, even for very simple circuits. To address this fundamental obstacle we propose the use of laboratory evolution methods to create new circuit components and optimize circuit performance inside living cells.

Additional Information

© 2003 World Scientific Publishing Company. Received 15 November 2002; Accepted 28 November 2002. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation (BITS EIA-0130613) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under Award No. N66001-02-1-8929. Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DARPA. Y. Yokobayashi is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad.

Additional details

Created:
September 26, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023