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There's been a lot of interesting papers out this month in synthetic biology. Here's a quick roundup of some news and research:
Oliver Wright, Guy-Bart Stan and Tom Ellis. Building-in Biosafety for Synthetic Biology. Microbiology, March 2013. Preprint PDF available here.
Christine Rabinovitch-Deer, John Oliver, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Shota Atsumi. Synthetic BIology and Metabolic Engineering Approaches to Biofuels. Chemical Reviews, March 2013.
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The BIOFAB: International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology published two papers this month about the precise control of gene expression in E. coli
An interesting New Scientist article discusses these papers in the context of industrialization of synthetic biology, from "handcrafted" production pathways in yeast to the "Ikea" of synthetic biology production: "Quality control opens path to synthetic biology's Ikea."
Mutalik et al. Quantitative Estimation of Activity and Quality for Collections of Functional Genetic Elements. Nature Methods, March 2013.
Mutalik et al. Precise and Reliable Gene Expression via Standard Transcription and Translation Initiation Elements. Nature Methods, March 2013.
Jerome Bonnet, Peter Yin, Monica Ortiz, Pakpoom Subsoontorn, and Drew Endy. Amplifying Genetic Logic Gates. Science, March 2013.
A great piece by Carl Zimmer on Synthetic Biology at Download The Universe: "A Comic Book Guide to Rewiring Life."
"Scientists create transistor-like biological device," Guardian Science News.