合成生物学:学科基础、研究进展与前景展望

由于基因组测序及DNA合成技术与工具的突破性进展,生物工程正在加速发展,导致合成生物学的出现。本文介绍了合成生物学的定义,强调了该学科的工程属性及关键的工程研究方法,举例说明了最近几年合成生物学在生物科学知识产生,在生物零件、装置及系统的建造,以及在药物、能源、酶的生产等研究领域的重要进展。特别值得注意的是,这些进展中的许多技术被认为是能够改变世界的技术,是由35岁以下甚至30岁以下的年轻研究人员完成的。本文还展望了合成生物学在生物科学和生物经济中的巨大潜力,也指出其面临的科学技术难题以及在生物安全、伦理、知识产权方面的问题。

Synthetic Biology: Fundamentals, Advances and Prospect

Biological engineering is rapidly accelerating owing to the significant development of technologies and tools for sequencing and synthesizing DNA, which give rise to the emerging discipline of synthetic biology. In this review, we introduce the definition of synthetic biology, highlight its engineering belongs and the key aspects of engineering approach, illustrate the important advances of synthetic biology applications in generation of biological knowledge; in construction of biological parts, devices and systems; in production of pharmaceutical compounds, energy, and enzymes. It is worth notice, many technologies, which can change the world, were created by young researchers under 35 or even 30. This paper also predict the great potential of synthetic biology in bioscience and bioeconomy and the facing challenges of scientific and technological barriers, issues in biosecurity, ethics and intelligent properties.