My Journey Through Synthetic Biology

Welcome back! Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered some of the biggest breakthroughs in SynBio including editing genes with CRISPR, programming cells with gene circuits, building life from scratch with synthetic cells, and even using AI to make the entire process more efficient.  And while all this innovation is amazing, it also brings up some really big questions… In this week’s post, we’re going to explore something that often gets overlooked in the rush to innovate: ethics. Since we’re literally rewriting the code of life… where should we draw the line? Why Ethics Matters in SynBio Synthetic biology gives us the power to redesign living organisms and create life forms that have never existed before. That kind of power raises ethical questions. For instance: Should we be modifying nature so freely? Should we build synthetic organisms just because we can? Who gets to decide what’s right or wrong? These questions matter because as we continue to build new tools and technologies, ...

Welcome back! In the last few weeks, we’ve talked about SynBio’s biggest breakthroughs: including editing genes with CRISPR, programming cells with gene circuits, and even building life from scratch with synthetic cells. What I haven’t talked about, however, is  the powerful tool working in the background behind many of these advances: artificial intelligence (AI).  In today’s post, I’ll be exploring how AI is being used to advance SynBio. From speeding up discovery to predicting how cells will behave, AI is helping scientists do things that would’ve taken years a decade ago. How AI Helps in SynBio At its core, SynBio is about designing life. However, as you probably already know, life is incredibly complex: DNA has billions of base pairs, proteins fold in mysterious ways, and living systems don’t always behave the way we expect. That’s where AI comes in. AI is helping researchers in several powerful ways. It can predict DNA sequences that are most likely to produce desired tr...

Hello again! Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about how synthetic biology lets us edit genes, program cells, and even build life from scratch. But now it's time to see what happens when we apply all of that in the real world at very large scales. Today’s blog will be about biomanufacturing, where cells are being modified to produce anything from medicines to perfume.  In this blog, I will explore how biomanufacturing works, what it’s already doing for the world, and why this area of SynBio might shape the future of everything we use and consume. What Is Biomanufacturing?                                                                                   Biomanufacturing is when we use living organisms—like bacteria, yeast, or even mammalian cells—to produce us...

Hey everyone! We’ve spent the last few blogs diving into how scientists can edit DNA with tools like CRISPR and even program living cells using gene circuits. But what if I told you that SynBio has improved to the point where scientists are not just editing life, but creating it from scratch? Today I will be talking about synthetic cells, where scientists have learned how to literally “build” life. I’ll dive into what synthetic cells are, how they’re made, and why this is one of the most mind-blowing areas of SynBio today. What Are Synthetic Cells?                                                                                                           Synthetic cells are man-made cells that mimic the structure and funct...