Microbial Synthetic Biology

The 40th volume of Methods in Microbiology focuses on microbial synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing discipline that builds on well-established principles of genetic engineering and biotechnology by integrating computational and engineering approaches to the design and construction of novel biological systems.

This volume addresses some of the major technical challenges stand in the way of achieving a radical step-change in our ability to engineer complex multi-scaled biological systems. These include: the application of computation intelligence to the design of synthetic microbial systems, design automation and constraints; the impact of noise and stochasticity; the engineering of biosensors; the characteristic of a model bacterial chassis. A key issue in Synthetic Biology is that of its social dimensions and a chapter is dedicated to the important issue.

1. Computational Intelligence in the Design of Synthetic Microbial Genetic Systems
   Jennifer S. Hallinan
2. Constraints in the Design of the Synthetic Bacterial Chassis
   Antoine Danchin and Agnieszka Sekowska
3. Social Dimensions of Microbial Synthetic Biology
   Jane Calvert and Emma Frow
4. Bacillus Subtilis: Model Gram-positive Synthetic Biology Chassis
   Colin R. Harwood, Suzanne Pohl, Wendy Smith and Anil Wipat
5. Engineering Microbial Biosensors
   Lisa Goers, Nicolas Kylilis, Marios Tomazou, Ke Yan Wen, Paul Freemont and Karen Polizzi
6. Noise and Stochasticity in Gene Expression – A Pathogenic Fate determinant
   Mikkel Girke Jørgensen, Renske van Raaphorst and Jan-Willem Veening
7. Platforms for Genetic Design Automation
   Chris J. Myers