Synthetic Biology: what, why and how
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia-IIT, Napoli
Abstract
Synthetic Biology is a Bioengineering discipline that aims at reprogramming cell fate by designing genetic circuits that perform sophisticated information processing. Synthetic biology has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of hard-to-tackle diseases by reprogramming cells with synthetic device. To obtain robust and speci c activity, synthetic circuits must sense and respond to the intracellular or extracellular environment recognizing the unhealthy condition. Over the talk I will focus on the design of a platform that can be easily readapted to sense intracellular protein of interest, and their application for engineering potential cell-based therapies. I will also show our work on RNA-encoded circuits that use RNA-binding proteins, siRNAs and proteases to engineer sensors, cascade and switches. Finally, I will present our recent research to address one of the standing bottlenecks of mammalian synthetic biology, namely the burden given by competition for intracellular resources that synthetic circuits impose to the cells.
Host: Raman Parashuraman
Conference Room, CNR, P. Castellino Campus
