Principles of gene circuit design

Genetic circuits operating within and between cells are the basis for a vast range of cellular and developmental functions in biology. Biologists have now assembled enormous information about individual components, their regulation, and interactions. However, in most cases we still lack understanding of why the resulting circuits have specific architectures or other features. Specifically, what features of these circuits enable them to operate efficiently or robustly in individual cells, and why have some architectures been selected by evolution over others? A lack of understanding of these basic issues currently limits our ability to predictively manipulate cells for biomedical applications. The goal of this meeting was to bring together researchers from a diverse background, mainly computational and systems biologists including synthetic biologists, seeking to discover and understand the basic design principles of genetic circuits, and to chart a path forward toward a more complete, predictive, and comprehensible understanding of genetic circuitry.