The Synthetic Nature of Biology

ABSTRACT: For centuries, biology was centred on the analysis of the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, but since the end of the 19th century it progressively adopted synthesis as a means to understand biological systems, strengthened recently by the dawn of synthetic biology. Contemporary synthetic biology is essentially composed of various “research tribes” with different methods, languages, metaphors and agendas willing to understand biological systems and—in particular—to engineer them for solving health, food, energy and environmental problems. Synthetic biology is not only an extension of traditional genetic engineering where Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are produced, but it is also endowed of various elements that allow the emergence of new artificial life forms. In this chapter, a b

SUBMITTER: Acevedo-Rocha C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7123144 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature