title: Next generation tools to accelerate the synthetic biology process.
abstract: Synthetic biology follows the traditional engineering paradigm of designing, building, testing and learning to create new biological systems. While such approaches have enormous potential, major challenges still exist in this field including increasing the speed at which this workflow can be performed. Here, we present recently developed microfluidic tools that can be used to automate the synthetic biology workflow with the goal of advancing the likelihood of producing desired functionalities. With the potential for programmability, automation, and robustness, the integration of microfluidics and synthetic biology has the potential to accelerate advances in areas such as bioenergy, health, and biomaterials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Canada. steve.shih@concordia.ca.
authors.forename: Steve C C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moraes
mesh_terms: D061249:Batch Cell Culture Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000639:trends*; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000639:trends*; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000639:trends*; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices / Q000639:trends*; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000639:trends*