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Which biological systems should be engineered?

To solve real-world problems using emerging abilities in synthetic biology, research must focus on a few ambitious goals, argues Dan Fletcher.
  1. Dan Fletcher

    1. Dan Fletcher is a professor of bioengineering and biophysics, and chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He is also a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.

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Thalassemia patients taking a regular blood transfusion

Children receiving blood transfusions in Bangladesh, where maintaining the supply from donors can be more challenging than in wealthy countries. Credit: Noor Alam/ZUMA Wire

The difference between tweaking and engineering is subtle but important. Scientists have been tweaking cells at the molecular scale for decades. In 1974, two researchers loaded DNA from a frog into a bacterium, prompting the microbe to produce a foreign RNA1. Twenty years later, scientists used a fluorescent protein from jellyfish to track gene expression in nematode worms, and to tag selected molecules in fruit flies2,3. The fluorescent components lit up under a microscope — kicking off a new era of watching cell biology in action.

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Nature 563, 177-179 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07291-3

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