Synthetic biology future applications and technology needs
From Murray Wiki
This page collects together some ideas about potential future applications for synthetic biology, broken down by technology readiness levels, and a list of some of the technologies that need to be developed to realize those applications.
Applications
| TRL | Application | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Synthetic cells | Ability to design and implement cell-like systems containing multiple subsystems to enable energy generation/transfer, sensing, actuation (export of chemicals, movement), decision-making, memory and other functions. Individual functions have been demonstrated in isolation, but limited demonstration of integrated synthetic cells are available. The Biuld-Aa-Cell consortium is organized around this problem. |
| 1 | Engineered multi-functional materials | Comments |
| 3 | Cell-based chemical detection and logging | Comments |
| 3 | Cell-free chemical detection and logging | Comments |
| 2 | Gut microbiome engineering | Comments |
| 2 | Wound microbiome engineering | Comments |
| 2 | Plant microbiome engineering | Comments |
| 4 | Environmental bioremediation | Comments |
| 1 | Engineered (biological) surface coatings | Comments |
| 1 | Environmentally responsive materials | Comments |
| 3 | Point-of-need manufacturing | Comments |
| 7 | Metabolic engineering/materials production | The use of engineered metabolic pathways to make (relatively simple) chemicals is an active area of business, with chemicals ranging from insulin to spider silk to food products. The basic technology is implementation of a enzymatic pathway to produce a biologically tractable chemical in a fermentable organism (e.g., yeast, E. coli). |
Technologies
| TRL | Technology | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| ? | Low-cost DNA synthesis/assembly | Comment |
| ? | Circuit design libraries and tools | Comment |
| ? | Subsystem engineering and modularity | Comment |
| ? | Cell-free prototyping | Comment |
| ? | Model-based design | Comment |
| ? | Multi-cellular consortia | Comment |
| ? | Engineered multi-cellular organisms | Comment |
| ? | Engineered macromolecular machines | Comment |
| ? | Programmable (and orthogonal) sensing and communications | Comment |
| ? | Mutation-resistant systems/mutation compensation | |
| ? | Non-exponential phase circuitry |
