Nature Biotechnology 24, 545 - 554 (2006)
Published online: 5 May 2006; | doi:10.1038/nbt1208
RNA synthetic biologyFarren J Isaacs1, Daniel J Dwyer2, 3
& James J Collins31
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. 2
Program in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. 3
Center for BioDynamics and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Farren J Isaacs farren@genetics.med.harvard.edu RNA molecules play important and diverse regulatory roles in the cell by virtue of their interaction with other nucleic acids, proteins and small molecules. Inspired by this natural versatility, researchers have engineered RNA molecules with new biological functions. In the last two years efforts in synthetic biology have produced novel, synthetic RNA components capable of regulating gene expression in vivo largely in bacteria and yeast, setting the stage for scalable and programmable cellular behavior. Immediate challenges for this emerging field include determining how computational and directed-evolution techniques can be implemented to increase the complexity of engineered RNA systems, as well as determining how such systems can be broadly extended to mammalian systems. Further challenges include designing RNA molecules to be sensors of intracellular and environmental stimuli, probes to explore the behavior of biological networks and components of engineered cellular control systems.
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