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Team:Alberta/References/Publications/Refinement and standardization of synthetic biological parts and devices
From 2009.igem.org
Barry Canton, Anna Labno and Drew Endy
Refinement and standardization of synthetic biological parts and devices
Abstract: The ability to quickly and reliably engineer many-component systems from libraries of standard interchangeable parts is one hallmark of modern technologies. Whether the apparent complexity of living systems will permit biological engineers to
develop similar capabilities is a pressing research question. We propose to adapt existing frameworks for describing engineered
devices to biological objects in order to (i) direct the refinement and use of biological ‘parts’ and ‘devices’, (ii) support research
on enabling reliable composition of standard biological parts and (iii) facilitate the development of abstraction hierarchies
that simplify biological engineering. We use the resulting framework to describe one engineered biological device, a
genetically encoded cell-cell communication receiver named BBa_F2620. The description of the receiver is summarized
via a ‘datasheet’ similar to those widely used in engineering. The process of refinement and characterization leading to the
BBa_F2620 datasheet may serve as a starting template for producing many standardized genetically encoded objects.
Link: Nature
