SEED 2024

Upscaling Engineering of Synthetic Biomachines via Synthetic Cells

The goal of this project is to demonstrate a model for biological systems engineering that can serve as a starting point for a larger effort in systems engineering of biological systems. We are focused on proof-of-concept demonstrations in synthetic cells, a class of non-living biological machines, constructed from biological components such as lipids, amino acids, proteins, and DNA. Synthetic cells do not mutate or evolve, allowing more systematic and repeatable engineering, and also providing significant advantages in environments where it may not be desirable to deploy genetically engineered organisms. A major element of our work is the development of open source tools that help “routinize” the creation of synthetic cells. We anticipate that the methods we develop can also serve as a testbed for engineering methods in living organisms.