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Nour Eldin (2013)
Synthetic biology aims at engineering new biological processes for specific industrial applications such as, for
example, microbial production of valuable plant specialized metabolites.
Stano (2013)
Synthetic biology probably represents today the most ambitious and fascinating branch in biology, and the
construction of synthetic cells is one of its most challenging goals. In this regard, it is necessary to make a
preliminary clarification. The term synthetic biology generally is taken to signify operations with
the genome of
a microorganism — either for a genetic engineering project, see for example [1] — or for analyzing theor-
etically the constraints of the minimal genome [2].
Definitions – PubMed
2010
Synthetic Biology
Included in “Definitions Scopus 2010” – see above
2011
Synthetic Biology
Newson AJ (2011)
Although no single definition of SynBio prevails, the field broadly encompasses the application of engineering
principles to biology, redesigning biological materials and using them as new substrates
to create products and
entities not otherwise found in nature.
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Schmidt and Pei (2011)
The probably least contested definition is that found at the SB community webpage
(http://syntheticbiology.org/):"Synthetic Biology is: A) the design and construction of new biological parts,
devices, and systems, and; B) the
re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes.
"Synthetic biologists are currently working to"
• specify and populate a set of standard parts that have well-defined performance characteristics and can be
used (and re-used) to build biological systems,
• develop and incorporate design methods and tools into an integrated engineering environment,
• reverse engineer and re-design preexisting biological parts and devices in order to expand the set of
functions
that we can access and program,
• reverse engineer and re-design a ‘simple’ natural bacterium,
• minimize the genome of natural bacteria and build so-called protocells in the lab, to define the minimal
requirements of
living entities, and
• construct orthogonal biological systems, such as a genetic code with an enlarged alphabet of base pairs.
Weber W and Fussenegger M
Synthetic biology aims to create functional devices, systems and organisms with novel and useful functions on
the basis of catalogued and standardized biological building blocks.
Zhang et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology is more ambitious than conventional genetic
engineering, and aims to design and reconstruct
biological systems or even entire bacterial genomes.
Prindle et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology can be broadly parsed into the “top-down” synthesis of genomes and the “bottom-up”
engineering of relatively small genetic circuits.
Bhomkar et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology or “synbio” is an emerging field of biotechnology that combines molecular biology with
genetic engineering and protein engineering.
Chen and Smolke (2011)
Furthermore, a central aim of synthetic biology is to facilitate the engineering of biology so that systems need
not be constructed from scratch for each new application. Synthetic biologists have begun to construct
integrated systems for translational applications by piecing together an increasingly sophisticated collection of
biological “parts” with diverse functions.
Colin at al. (2011)
However, one commonly used way to describe synthetic biology is as the design and construction of new
biological functions that are not found in nature.
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Svensen et al. (2011)
The ability to efficiently and economically generate libraries of defined pieces of DNA would have a myriad of
applications, not least in the area of defined or directed sequencing and synthetic biology but also in
applications associated with encoding and tagging.
Amidi et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology is a rapidly emerging interdisciplinary research field that aims to construct new biological
parts and systems with new functionalities through a process of engineering and standardization.
Porcar et al. (2011)
The achievement of a simplified synthetic chassis with only a fraction of the functions of a natural cell but
keeping the very essence of life (the ability to perpetuate in time) is at the core of the research agenda of
Synthetic Biology.
Lee et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology provides a powerful tool that can be applied to a variety of goals: engineering metabolic
pathways, overproducing a specific protein, examining fundamental biology.
Saeidi et al. (2011)
Synthetic biology aims to engineer genetically modified biological systems that perform novel functions that
do not exist in nature, with reusable, standard interchangeable biological parts. The use of these standard
biological parts enables the exploitation of common engineering principles such as standardization,
decoupling, and abstraction for synthetic biology.
Achbergerová and Nahálka (2011)
"Synthetic biology" is a scientific area that includes two intentions. One area uses unnatural molecules to
reproduce emergent behaviours in natural biology with the goal of creating artificial life. The other area seeks
interchangeable parts from natural biology to assemble systems that function unnaturally [117]. In both cases,
the intentions are focused on a better understanding of life and on the use of knowledge for a commercial
benefit.
Sicilioano et al. (2011)
Synthetic Biology aims at designing and building new biological functions in living organisms.
At the same time,
Synthetic Biology approaches can be used to uncover the design principles of natural biological systems
through the rational construction of simplified regulatory networks. Mathematical models of the networks are
then derived from physical considerations and can be used to explain the observed dynamical behaviours.
Sarrion-Perdigones et al. (2011)
Synthetic Biology adapts the general engineering principle of assembling standard components, dating back to
he Industrial Revolution, to biological components. This discipline aims at the design of artificial living forms
displaying new traits not existing in nature [1], [2]. This objective can be pursued following a bottom-up
strategy, by creating new living forms from its basic components; however, a more straightforward option
consists of integrating new genetic circuits within the genome of a current living organism or “chassis”.
Song et al. (2011)