Synthetic biology-based optogenetic approaches to control therapeutic designer cells

Synthetic biology approaches to engineer T cells.

There is rapidly growing interest in learning how to engineer immune cells, such as T lymphocytes, because of the potential of these engineered cells to be used for therapeutic applications such as the recognition and killing of cancer cells. At the same time, our knowhow and capability to logically engineer cellular behavior is growing rapidly with the development of synthetic biology. Here we...

An overview of therapeutic approaches to brain tumor stem cells

 Primary and secondary malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors are devastating invasive tumors able to give rise to many kinds of differentiated tumor cells. Glioblastoma multiform (GBM), is the most malignant brain tumor, in which its growth and persistence depend on cancer stem cells with enhanced DNA damage repair program that also induces recurrence and resists current chemo- and radi...

Build to understand: synthetic approaches to biology.

In this review we discuss how synthetic biology facilitates the task of investigating genetic circuits that are observed in naturally occurring biological systems. Specifically, we give examples where experimentation with synthetic gene circuits has been used to understand four fundamental mechanisms intrinsic to development and disease: multistability, stochastic gene expression, oscillations,...

Synthetic biology approaches to biofuel production

Chemical Approaches to Synthetic Biology - From Vesicles Self-Reproduction to Semi-Synthetic Minimal Cells

The recent advent, success and diffusion of synthetic biology (SB) are mainly related to its application as markedly bioengineering-oriented discipline. In addition to this classical view, SB also means “constructive” biology, and it is aimed to the construction of synthetic (artificial, man-made) biologicallike systems, at the aim of understanding basic concepts of living systems and of their ...