Computational Design in Synthetic Biology

Abstract : One of the most ambitious goals in biological engineering is the ability to computationally design an organism using unsupervised algorithms. We discuss the development of new automatic methodologies to design biological parts and devices using computational design. Some of them rely on the appropriate characterisation of single genetic elements into SBML models and their posterior assembly to generate the final transcriptional network with targeted behaviour (such as an oscillatory dynamics). This modular construction approach allows implementing a successful modelling-construction-characterization cycle. Currently, it is not clear what role is played by cellular context, and to which extent it is possible to fruitfully use such a modular approach, but the perspectives of a model-based design of biological networks overwhelms the corresponding risk