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Synthetic Biology Building on Nature's Inspiration: Interdisciplinary Research Team Summaries (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Conference Summary
Pages 1-6

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From page 1...
... It promises a fundamentally deeper understanding of how living systems work and the capacity to recreate them for medicine, public health, and for the environment, including renewable energy. By building synthetic biological systems, scientists seek an unprecedented level of insight and knowledge about how various parts of biological systems function in isolation and as whole organisms or even whole ecosystems.
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From page 2...
... IDR teams 3a and 3b asked how synthetic biology could lead to an understanding of the principles underlying natural genetic circuits and to the discovery of new ways to make use of that knowledge. Half of the group approached the problem by asking if a failed or noisy synthetic circuit could help scientists better understand natural circuits and locate missing genes, proteins or chemical reactions.
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From page 3...
... IDR team 6 pondered how genomics could be leveraged to develop coherent approaches for rapidly exploring the biochemical diversity in and engineering of new model organisms, to augment studies that currently rely on well studied organisms. They decided that the most pertinent problem is figuring out ways to most efficiently and effectively search the biosphere for new genes and to elucidate their specific functions.
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From page 4...
... The other half of the team focused on creating biotic and abiotic devices that could act on the host cell without altering its DNA, which would offer research an incredible advantage over current techniques of genetic engineering. First, the team proposed building simpler synthetic transporter proteins that, when injected into cells, could stimulate a desired response immediately.
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From page 5...
... During the final large group discussion, many participants commented that the conference changed the way they will do their research, will inspire their teaching, foster new collegial connections and bolster existing ones.
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