synthetic biology, cell & molecular biology

Bacteria that take in inorganic carbon could have applications in sustainable biofuels.

Researchers create permanent DNA records directly from transient RNA transcripts within bacterial cells.

Scientists engineered human cells to produce a molecule that stimulates insulin secretion in the presence of caffeine.

Nonliving cells developed in the lab can communicate chemically with living bacteria, according to a study.

Scientists designed a genetic sensor-and-readout system, based on detecting a transcription factor, that performs a custom cellular activity.

Researchers repurpose a bacterial immune system to be a molecular recording device.

Scientists build a specialized ribosome with linked subunits that can translate designer transcripts in bacteria.

Researchers create synthetic enzymes in the lab, encoded by artificial genetic material.

Researchers construct lipid-encapsulated compartments within synthetic cells.

Synthetic biologists need to work together with conservationists to understand the environmental consequences of this new technology.

Synthetic biologists harness software to design genes and networks.

Designing genomes from scratch will be the next revolution in biology.

Exploiting the unique properties of living systems makes synthetic biologists better engineers.

A decade’s worth of engineering-infused biology

Learn about the field’s first genetic circuits and read forecasts by George M. Church and J. Craig Venter of a future where man-made organisms pump out novel fuels, drugs, and therapies.

Researchers design a synthetic bacterium that kills the infectious microbe Pseudomonas aeruginosa, sacrificing itself in the process.

For the first time, researchers have engineered a multicellular organism that incorporates a synthetic amino acid into its proteins.

In a feat of computational biology, researchers design novel proteins capable of neutralizing a key influenza protein.