Synthetic biology: “Disco bacteria” could churn out drugs and useful chemicals

Print section Print Rubric:  A new way to control genetically engineered cells Print Headline:  Lights, bacteria, action Print Fly Title:  Synthetic biology UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  How to improve the health of the ocean Fly Title:  Synthetic biology Main image:  M.C. Escherichia M.C. Escherichia THE central idea of synthetic biology is that living cells can be programmed in the same way that computers can, in order to make them do things and produce compounds that their natural counterparts do not. As with computers, though, scientists need a way to control their creations. To date, that has been done with chemical signals. In a paper published in Nature Chemical Biology, Christopher Voigt, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes an alternative. Instead of chemicals, he and his colleagues demonstrate how to control ...
Source: Biotechnology - Category: Biotechnology Source Type: news