One of the most interesting areas in medicine is the use of living cells as
New technology created by scientistsfrom Northwestern University, uses computer modeling to efficiently identify useful genetic constructs before they are created in the laboratory.
“To construct a cell, we firstwe encode the desired biological function in a DNA fragment. This program is then delivered into a human cell to, for example, activate a gene in response to certain signals in the cellular environment,” explains the study author.
The study, which developed and tested dozens of genetic circuits, was published in the journalScience Advances... Like other synthetic biology technologies, a key feature of this approach is that it is intended for use by other groups of bioengineers.
To date, the development of genetictrial-and-error programs remain complex and time-consuming. It is also difficult to implement biological functions beyond relatively simple ones. The research team used a "toolbox" of genetic parts and coupled those parts with computational tools to model many potential genetic programs before conducting experiments. They discovered that a wide range of genetic programs, each performing a desired and beneficial function in a human cell, could be engineered so that each program worked as intended.
Genetic circuits designed and implementedin this study are also more complex than in the previous prior art. This advancement makes it possible to create cells to perform more complex functions and make therapy safer and more effective.
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