Breakthrough “genetic circuits” discovered by Ahmad S. Khalil and James J. Collins bring us closer to synthetic human cells:
We’re one step closer to building artificial cells. Synthetic biologists have found a new way to assemble “genetic circuits,” components that perform logical operations in living cells. This breakthrough could facilitate the development of artificial cells designed to solve problems in medicine, energy, and the environment.
Genetic Circuits
This new technique, which was developed by Boston University biomedical engineers Ahmad S. Khalil and James J. Collins, could equip synthetic biologists with an entirely new set of genetic components for them to do their work — a development that could significantly increase the size and complexity of genetic circuits that can be built.