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Research papers on Synthetic biology

Recent and highly-cited academic work on synthetic biology, gathered from Semantic Scholar, CrossRef and OpenAlex.

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  2. Next-generation biocontainment systems for engineered organisms

    Jeong Wook Lee, Clement T. Y. Chan, S. Slomovic, et al. · 2018 · Nature Chemical Biology · 254 citations

    The increasing use of engineered organisms for industrial, clinical, and environmental applications poses a growing risk of spreading hazardous biological entities into the environment. To address this biosafety issue, significant effort has been invested in creating ways to confine these organisms and transgenic materials. Emerging technologies in synthetic biology involving genetic circuit engineering, genome editing, and gene expression regulation have led to the development of novel biocontainment systems. In this perspective, we highlight recent advances in biocontainment and suggest a number of approaches for future development, which may be applied to overcome remaining challenges in

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  5. Exploiting the Feedstock Flexibility of the Emergent Synthetic Biology Chassis Vibrio natriegens for Engineered Natural Product Production

    Gregory A Ellis, Tanya Tschirhart, J. Spangler, et al. · 2019 · Marine Drugs · 56 citations

    A recent goal of synthetic biology has been to identify new chassis that provide benefits lacking in model organisms. Vibrio natriegens is a marine Gram-negative bacterium which is an emergent synthetic biology chassis with inherent benefits: An extremely fast growth rate, genetic tractability, and the ability to grow on a variety of carbon sources (“feedstock flexibility”). Given these inherent benefits, we sought to determine its potential to heterologously produce natural products, and chose beta-carotene and violacein as test cases. For beta-carotene production, we expressed the beta-carotene biosynthetic pathway from the sister marine bacterium Vibrio campbellii, as well as the mevalona

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  6. Engineering microbes for enhancing the degradation of environmental pollutants: A detailed review on synthetic biology.

    P. R. Yaashikaa, M. K. Devi, P. Kumar · 2022 · Environmental research · 56 citations

    Anthropogenic activities resulted in the deposition of huge quantities of contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, hydrocarbons, etc into an ecosystem. The serious ill effects caused by these pollutants to all living organisms forced in advancement of technology for degrading or removing these pollutants. This degrading activity is mostly depending on microorganisms owing to their ability to survive in harsh adverse conditions. Though native strains possess the capability to degrade these pollutants the development of genetic engineering and molecular biology resulted in engineering approaches that enhanced the efficiency of microbes in degrading pollutants at faster rate. Many bioinformatic

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  7. Synthetic biology techniques to tackle heavy metal pollution and poisoning

    Adithi Somayaji, S. Sarkar, S. Balasubramaniam, et al. · 2022 · Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology · 27 citations

    The requirement for natural resources and energy increases continually with the increase in population. An inevitable result of this is soil, water, and air pollution with diverse pollutants, including heavy metals. Synthetic Biology involves using modular, interchangeable biological parts, devices in standard chassis or whole organisms to achieve a programmed result that can be quantified and optimized till it meets the required efficiency. This makes synthetic biology techniques very popular to tackle pressing global issues such as heavy metal poisoning. This review aimed to highlight various advancements as well as benefits, risks, and problems in synthetic biology techniques for detectio

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  11. Environment signal dependent biocontainment systems for engineered organisms: Leveraging triggered responses and combinatorial systems

    Shreya Varma, K. Gulati, Janani Sriramakrishnan, et al. · 2024 · Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology · 18 citations

    As synthetic biology advances, the necessity for robust biocontainment strategies for genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) grows increasingly critical to mitigate biosafety risks related to their potential environmental release. This paper aims to evaluate environment signal-dependent biocontainment systems for engineered organisms, focusing specifically on leveraging triggered responses and combinatorial systems. There are different types of triggers—chemical, light, temperature, and pH—this review illustrates how these systems can be designed to respond to environmental signals, ensuring a higher safety profile. It also focuses on combinatorial biocontainment to avoid consequences of un

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  12. Synthetic Biology Approaches for Improving Chemical Production in Cyanobacteria

    Tanner R. Treece, Jake N. Gonzales, Joseph R. Pressley, et al. · 2022 · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology · 18 citations

    Biological chemical production has gained traction in recent years as a promising renewable alternative to traditional petrochemical based synthesis. Of particular interest in the field of metabolic engineering are photosynthetic microorganisms capable of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. CO2 levels have continued to rise at alarming rates leading to an increasingly uncertain climate. CO2 can be sequestered by engineered photosynthetic microorganisms and used for chemical production, representing a renewable production method for valuable chemical commodities such as biofuels, plastics, and food additives. The main challenges in using photosynthetic microorganisms for chemical product

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  13. Synthetic Biology and the Distinction between Organisms and Machines

    Marianne Schark · 2012 · Environmental Values · 18 citations

    In the context of synthetic biology, scientists and bioengineers talk of living beings as being ‘living machines'. This categorisation of the envisaged new life forms has given rise to the ethical concern that their moral status may be seen as different from that of natural or only partially artificial living beings (GMOs). The paper discusses the notion of a living being and the notion of a machine in order to arrive at a conclusion to the question of whether this categorisation is warranted or not. For this reason, it also looks back to the history of the comparison of living beings to machines and tries to show what motivated the analogy. In the end, though, it is argued that one should s

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  14. Nanoscale synthetic biology with innovative medicinal applications

    Jing-Sen Ji, Long-Song Li, Wei-Sheng Guo, et al. · 2024 · Fundamental Research · 17 citations

    The rapid advancement of synthetic biology and nanoscience has given rise to a new research field, known as nanoscale synthetic biology (NSB). This field emphasizes the interactions and coordination within entire biological systems, with the goal of achieving more efficient and controllable biological engineering through nanoscale manipulation. Nanocarriers facilitate the delivery of gene-regulating systems (such as CRISPR, mRNA, siRNA, and plasmids), nanozymes, drugs, and specific nanoprobes, enabling precise control over gene expression, modulation of biological metabolism, and monitoring of synthesized products in various organisms (including cells, bacteria, and viruses). This enables ad

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  16. Broad-Host-Range Synthetic Biology: Rethinking Microbial Chassis as a Design Variable

    Dennis Tin Chat Chan, Johan Bjerg, H. Bernstein · 2025 · ACS Synthetic Biology · 15 citations

    Broad-host-range synthetic microbiology is redefining the role of microbial hosts in genetic design by moving beyond the traditional organisms. Historically, synthetic biology has focused on optimizing engineered genetic constructs within a limited set of well-characterized chassis, often treating host-context dependency as an obstacle. However, emerging research demonstrates that host selection is a crucial design parameter that influences the behavior of engineered genetic devices through resource allocation, metabolic interactions, and regulatory crosstalk. By leveraging microbial diversity, broad-host-range synthetic biology enhances the functional versatility of engineered biological sy

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  17. Bioconversion of CO2 into valuable bioproducts via synthetic modular co-culture of engineered Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Escherichia coli.

    Nam Kyu Kang, Hyun Gi Koh, Yujung Choi, et al. · 2025 · Metabolic engineering · 15 citations

    With increasing concern over environmental problems and energy crises, interest in the biological conversion of CO2 into bioproducts is growing. Although microalgae efficiently utilize CO2, their metabolic engineering remains challenging. In contrast, while synthetic biology tools are advanced for many heterotrophic bacteria, these organisms cannot directly utilize CO2. As such, a modular co-culture system with a glycolate dehydrogenase 1 (GYD1) deficient Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant and Escherichia coli was developed. The GYD1 mutant secretes glycolic acid via photorespiration, which E. coli metabolizes via the glyoxylate cycle. E. coli growth was improved by implementing two-stage cont

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  18. Ecological firewalls for synthetic biology

    Blai Vidiella, Ricard Solé · 2022 · iScience · 11 citations

    Summary It has been recently suggested that engineered microbial strains could be used to protect ecosystems from undesirable tipping points and biodiversity loss. A major concern in this context is the potential unintended consequences, which are usually addressed in terms of designed genetic constructs aimed at controlling overproliferation. Here we present and discuss an alternative view grounded in the nonlinear attractor dynamics of some ecological network motifs. These ecological firewalls are designed to perform novel functionalities (such as plastic removal) while containment is achieved within the resident community. That could help provide a self-regulating biocontainment. In this

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  19. Synthetic biology in multicellular organisms: Opportunities in nematodes

    Dmytro Kukhtar, M. Fussenegger · 2023 · Biotechnology and Bioengineering · 8 citations

    Synthetic biology has mainly focused on introducing new or altered functionality in single cell systems: primarily bacteria, yeast, or mammalian cells. Here, we describe the extension of synthetic biology to nematodes, in particular the well‐studied model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, as a convenient platform for developing applications in a multicellular setting. We review transgenesis techniques for nematodes, as well as the application of synthetic biology principles to construct nematode gene switches and genetic devices to control motility. Finally, we discuss potential applications of engineered nematodes.

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  20. Green horizons: how plant synthetic biology can enable space exploration and drive on Earth sustainability.

    M. Morgan, J. Diab, M. Gilliham, et al. · 2024 · Current opinion in biotechnology · 8 citations

    As humanity looks towards expanding activity from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond, resource use efficiency and self-sustainability will be critical to ensuring success in the long term. Furthermore, solutions developed for the stringent requirements of space will be equally valuable in meeting sustainability goals here on Earth. Advances in synthetic biology allow us to harness the complex metabolism of life to produce the materials we need in situ. Translating those lessons learned from microbial systems to more carbon-efficient photosynthetic organisms is an area of growing interest. Plants can be engineered to sustainably meet a range of needs, from fuels to materials and medicines

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