Team develops gene circuit design strategy to advance synthetic biology

Phys.org (Sept. 26) -- Over the last 17 years, scientists and engineers have developed synthetic gene circuits that can program the functionality, performance, and behavior of living cells. To date, most circuits are constructed through a trial-and-error manner, which relies heavily on a designer's intuition and is often inefficient, said University of Illinois Bioengineering Associate Professor Ting Lu. He and his graduate students, Chen Liao and Andrew Blanchard, recently addressed the challenge by constructing an integrated modeling framework for quantitatively describing and predicting gene circuit behaviors. Also: Gears of Bix (Sept. 28)