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Trends in Biotechnology
Published in Firdos Alam Khan, Biotechnology Fundamentals, 2020
The main reasons synthetic biology came into existence is the approval of human insulin, which was the first medicine made by using recombinant DNA technology, and later the development of the first recombinant vaccine. In addition, researchers were also able to successfully synthesize the entire genome of Mycoplasma mycoides based on the known sequence of the microbe, and could replace the DNA from the bacterium Mycoplasma capricolum with this synthetic genome and produce functional bacterial cells similar to natural Mycoplasma mycoides. There are various applications of synthetic biology which create new organisms for biofuel production, to degrade bio-wastes, and for enhancement of the productivity of agriculture and food production.
Synthetic Biology and Artificial Intelligence
Published in Lavanya Sharma, Mukesh Carpenter, Computer Vision and Internet of Things, 2022
The early success came in 2010 by Craig Venter [132], one of the leaders on the human genome project, when he produced the first unnatural cell, writing the entire genome of tiny bacteria named Mycoplasma mycoides, which then succeeded to insert another bacterium, called Synthia, into an empty cell. It was a fascinating discovery when the Synthia genome was methodically broken down to the minimum number of genes needed to sustain it, revealing a reduction life to its basic form, the function of each of its genes [132].
Design of artificial cells: artificial biochemical systems, their thermodynamics and kinetics properties
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2022
Adamu Yunusa Ugya, Lin Pohan, Qifeng Wang, Kamel Meguellati
Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 is the first synthetic organism to be designed and synthesized with the control of a synthetic chromosome. The newly synthesized cell exhibited competent self-replication and similar phenotypic properties [22]. Another example of self-replicative protein is the amphipathic cyclic D,L–peptides, which exhibit systemic antibacterial activity, are capable of systemic administration, and have been used for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections [108]. The first designed macrocyclic peptoid-containing histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibited Class I histone deacetylases [101]. A novel class of natural and synthetic HDACs lacking Zn2+-binding groups is designed to avoid interactions of off-targets with other metalloenzymes. This inhibitor interacts at the opening of the active site and not with the Zn2+-containing active site, which makes it useful for drug design [109]. A new concise solid support-based synthetic method for the preparation of cyclic D,L -peptides with 1,4,5,8-napthalenetetracarboxylic diimide (NDI) side chains is described in order to provide insight into the basic blueprint for a series of self-assembling cyclic D,L -peptide nanotubes with remarkable optical and electronic properties [110]. The last study describes the functional rotaxane yield by threading the -hemolysin transmembrane pore in a desirable orientation by DNA-PEG hybrid strands [111]. The thermodynamic and kinetic properties for the design of artificial biomolecules such as foldamers and cells will be discussed in the following sections.
Fables and Futures: Biotechnology, Disability and the Stories we Tell Ourselves
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
This is illustrated by the story of J Craig Venter's 15-year project culminating in the advent of Mycoplasma mycoides, better known as Synthia, described as the first synthetic cell. Whilst Venter vaunted that Synthia heralded the ‘dawn of digital life’, other scientists, such as David Baltimore, were quick to point out “He has not created life, only mimicked it”. Venter however insists that Synthia is as much a philosophical advance as a technical one, claiming that it disproves vitalism by showing that life is merely material and more specifically, life is information. Estreich however feels the possible interpretations of Synthia's significance are ‘more uncertain, and more interesting than those advanced by its author’ (p. 101). The sections on the ironies of language and the misquote from James Joyce erroneously inserted into Synthia's genetic sequence, are well worth reading in full; all of these are quirks which perhaps only a writer such as Estreich, could find in Venter claims. He concludes with a reminder that ‘(a)s an organic book, one that can reproduce independently, Synthia is self-publishing but self-revising too’ (p. 105) and eventually the James Joyce (mis)quote and all the other puzzles and signatures that Venter team inserted into the non-coding DNA of Synthia's genome will disappear over the generations.
Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2019
Lucía Gómez-Tatay, José M. Hernández-Andreu
The major milestones achieved in this respect include: the complete synthesis of a simple bacterial genome (based on the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides) and its successful introduction into a recipient bacterium (Gibson et al., 2010); the production of an organism with the smallest genome of any known cell life form (Hutchison et al., 2016); the construction of the first synthetic eukaryotic chromosome (Annaluru et al., 2014); and the production of a yeast strain in which three of its chromosomes are completely synthetic and functional (Mitchell et al., 2017).