Genetic circuits (toggle switch, repressilator), CRISPR (Cas9/12/13), base editing, prime editing.
Synthetic Biology
Genetic circuit
Engineered regulatory network performing a defined computational task (sensor, memory, oscillator, logic). Standardised parts (promoters,…
Genetic toggle switch
Gardner-Cantor-Collins 2000 bistable switch: two mutually repressing transcription factors. Proof-of-principle for synthetic bistability;…
Repressilator
Elowitz-Leibler 2000 three-node cyclic-repression oscillator (LacI → TetR → λCI → LacI). Produces noisy ~2 h period oscillations in E.…
CRISPR-Cas9
Bacterial adaptive-immunity endonuclease repurposed for programmable genome editing. sgRNA guides Cas9 to target; DSB → NHEJ/HR.…
Base editor
Liu lab 2016/2017: Cas9-nickase fused to cytidine or adenine deaminase enables C→T (CBE) or A→G (ABE) single-base edits without DSB.…
Prime editing
Anzalone-Liu 2019: Cas9-nickase + reverse transcriptase + pegRNA. Writes arbitrary small edits via 3′-extended guide RNA template. Broader…
BioBrick standard
Standardised DNA assembly parts with defined prefix/suffix restriction sites. iGEM registry. Enabled modular part sharing before…
Gibson assembly
Isothermal one-pot assembly of overlapping DNA fragments using exonuclease + polymerase + ligase. Gibson 2009; enables rapid cloning of…
Minimal genome
Mycoplasma-based chassis with ~500 essential genes (JCVI-syn3.0, 2016). Defines the lower bound of cellular life; platform for adding…
Expanded genetic code
Unnatural base pairs (dX-dY of Hachimoji DNA) + orthogonal tRNA/aaRS pairs enable unnatural amino acids + novel genetic codes. Schultz,…