An Assembly Line For Cellular Biology

Just a few short years ago, synthetic biology-- the fabrication of customized cellular machinery -- was a largely experimental field. But the science has grown rapidly from a handful of labs and an annual soapbox-derby style contest for college kids into a soon-to-be-booming industry:

Installing one of those prefab, snap-together wood-flooring kits is a lot easier than shaping and sanding rough planks. Adapting a similar construction strategy, a biotech startup called Codon Devices, based in Cambridge, MA, aims to streamline genetic engineering. It makes made-to-order DNA strands, freeing scientists from the finicky work it takes to put together a complicated piece of DNA the old-fashioned way.

That capability could soon change the face of molecular biology. As it becomes cheaper and cheaper to create large chunks of genetic material from scratch, scientists will be able to make ever more complex biological creations. "In the next few years, we'll probably see people engineering cells to do drug delivery or creating cellular sensors," says George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard and one of Codon's founders. "Maybe even cells that make inorganic objects of interest, like nanostructures."

As a side note, the enzymes mentioned in our previous post on bioplastic fuel were made by another synthetic biology company, DNA 2.0. Their motto: "The Building Blocks Of Life. Built For You."

Ah, life in 2007....

DNA Factories [Technology Review]
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Image: Endy Lab*