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Realizing the potential of synthetic biology
Open accessAbstract
Synthetic biology, despite still being in its infancy, is increasingly providing valuable information for applications in the clinic, the biotechnology industry and in basic molecular research. Both its unique potential and the challenges it presents have brought together the expertise of an eclectic group of scientists, from cell biologists to engineers. In this Viewpoint article, five experts discuss their views on the future of synthetic biology, on its main achievements in basic and applied science, and on the bioethical issues that are associated with the design of new biological systems.
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“Synthetic biology aims to apply design principles such standardisation, modularity and abstraction hierarchy to the genetic engineering of organisms (Church et al., 2014).”
From Cyanobacteria and microalgae in supporting human habitation on Mars (2022) · cites this paper as Church et al., 2014
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Research works printed but not linked: 2
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FAIRsharing record for: SynBioHub
FAIRsharing Team, & Myers, C. (2018) · FAIRsharing.org · doi:10.25504/fairsharing.7cvos6
Metadata
- Authors
- Church, G. M., Elowitz, M. B., Smolke, C. D., Voigt, C. A., & Weiss, R.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Elowitz, Michael B.
- Smolke, Christina D.
- Voigt, Christopher A.
- Weiss, Ron
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
- Published
- 2014-03-12
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 289-294
- ISSN
- 1471-0072 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-0080
- PMC
- PMC9645560
- OpenAlex
- W2085434605
- Cited by
- 226
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 12
- FWCI
- 2.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM086663)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (DP1AT007886)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
- Keywords
- synthetic biology, bioethics, systems biology, computational modelling, biotechnology applications, clinical application
- MeSH terms
- Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering, Humans, Guidelines as Topic, Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology
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