Unlike the first
synthetic cells made in 2010, in which Venter's team at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California, copied an existing bacterial genome and transplanted it into another cell, the genome of the minimal cells is like nothing in nature.
Not exact matches
John Glass, a senior microbiologist in the
synthetic biology group at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, puts it this way: If you can imagine a set of genes that will program a
cell to do something — anything — then you can
make them «at a reasonable cost and test your hypothesis... so it will be possible to attempt to design organisms that have extraordinary properties to solve human needs.»
But rather than natural diamond, Silvera and Dias used two small pieces of carefully polished
synthetic diamond which were then treated to
make them even tougher and then mounted opposite each other in a device known as a diamond anvil
cell.
Synthetic biocircuits
made of DNA and encoded proteins could be inserted to detect and repair (or kill)
cells with mutations known to cause cancer or aging.
At its most basic,
synthetic biology is about
making DNA from scratch, on scales from individual molecules to
cells, tissues and even entire organisms.
Modeled after platelets —
cells that circulate in the blood and help stop bleeding by forming clots — the nanoparticles are less than 100 nm wide and
made of
synthetic polymers stuck together like a ball of wet sand.
BONCAT uses
synthetic amino acids to label protein -
making cells.
For experiments aimed at identifying MYC's
synthetic lethal partners, such
cells may have advantages over the «immortalized»
cells commonly used in cancer research, which contain many genetic alterations that
make MYC - specific results difficult to discern.
On - demand replacement body parts inched closer to reality with the announcement from San Diego biotech company Organovo that its organ «printer» had created the first artificial blood vessel
made entirely from human
cells, with no
synthetic scaffolding.
The aim is to
make a
synthetic skin substitute that is based on biodegradable polymers and peptides which can be reconstituted with the patients own
cells.
Powered by the
synthetic genome, that microbial
cell began replicating and
making a new set of proteins.
Craig Venter and his teams at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California, have shown themselves to be technical wizards by synthesising a genome from code contained on a computer, and using it to start a
cell line of the resulting
synthetic organism (see «How the
synthetic bacterium was
made»).
In an elegant proof - of - principle approach, the researchers used
synthetic molecules to decrease the physical distance between the ER and mitochondria in
cells and in liver tissue and found that this intervention impaired mitochondrial function and
made mice more sensitive to high fat diet - induced insulin resistance and diabetes.
Traditional hydrogels
made up of either
synthetic polymers or natural biomolecules often serve as passive scaffolds for molecular or cellular species, which render these materials unable to fully recapitulate the dynamic signaling involved in biological processes, such as
cell / tissue development.
To see if Narp played a role in
making these new
cells in mice, the researchers injected a
synthetic molecule, BrdU, to label and allow detection of newly created
cells that would become neurons in the hippocampus.
By transferring the gene for melanopsin into human embryonic kidney
cells,
synthetic biologist Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and colleagues
made these
cells light - sensitive as well.
Glass and his Venter Institute colleagues are now using
synthetic biology and
synthetic genomics approaches developed at the JCVI to create
cells and organelles with redesigned genomes to
make microbes that can produce biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and industrially valuable molecules.
LA JOLLA — A
synthetic derivative of vitamin D was found by Salk Institute researchers to collapse the barrier of
cells shielding pancreatic tumors,
making this seemingly impenetrable cancer much more susceptible to therapeutic drugs.
With the edits
made, the team starts to assemble edited,
synthetic DNA sequences into ever larger chunks, which are finally introduced into yeast
cells, where cellular machinery finishes building the chromosome.
Cornell researchers are using
synthetic DNA to
make nanoparticles, dubbed DNAsomes, that can deliver drugs and genetic therapy to the insides of
cells.
Synthetic biologists are getting closer to creating man -
made organs
made out of genetically engineered
cells...
Prior research had developed a number of new compounds
making use of a novel drug discovery paradigm which begins with natural products extracted from plants; it then entails selecting
synthetic derivatives which demonstrate efficacy in multiple assays testing protection against different factors of the nerve
cell damage and death which take place in brain injuries and in age - associated neurodegenerative conditions.
Nothing artificial is fed to the
cells since its an natural cacao extract,
making it safer and more effective for muscle growth rate than
synthetic myostatin inhibitors.
The latest achievement of J. Craig Venter — rebooting a bacterial
cell as a different species by giving it a man -
made genetic instruction manual — is just one step on the long inevitable path into
synthetic biology.