title: Developments in the tools and methodologies of synthetic biology.
abstract: Synthetic biology is principally concerned with the rational design and engineering of biologically based parts, devices, or systems. However, biological systems are generally complex and unpredictable, and are therefore, intrinsically difficult to engineer. In order to address these fundamental challenges, synthetic biology is aiming to unify a "body of knowledge" from several foundational scientific fields, within the context of a set of engineering principles. This shift in perspective is enabling synthetic biologists to address complexity, such that robust biological systems can be designed, assembled, and tested as part of a biological design cycle. The design cycle takes a forward-design approach in which a biological system is specified, modeled, analyzed, assembled, and its functionality tested. At each stage of the design cycle, an expanding repertoire of tools is being developed. In this review, we highlight several of these tools in terms of their applications and benefits to the synthetic biology community.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London , London , UK ; Department of Medicine, Imperial College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kelwick
authors.affiliation: Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London , London , UK ; Department of Medicine, Imperial College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: James T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London , London , UK ; Department of Medicine, Imperial College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Alexander J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.affiliation: Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London , London , UK ; Department of Medicine, Imperial College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Freemont
keywords: design cycle; engineering biology; standardization; synthetic biology; tools