GCAT Synthetic Biology: Classic Papers

Introductory Papers for General Audiences

iGEM 2005 News

Research Papers in Synthetic Biology

Review Papers of Interest to Synthetic Biology

Introduction to Synthetic Biology

Dan Ferber. 2004. Microbes Made to Order. Science. Vol. 303: 158 - 161. (Good general overview)

Jeff Hasty, David McMillen, and J. J. Collins. 2002. Engineered Gene Circuits. Nature. Vol. 420: 224 - 230. (Scholarly Review Paper)

Philip Ball. 2004. Starting from Scratch. Nature. Vol. 431: 624 - 626. (Good general overview)

Editors of Nature. 2004. Futures of Artificial Life. Nature. Vol. 431: 613. (Editorial that addresses ethical considerations)

Steven Benner and Michael Sismour. 2005. Synthetic Biology. Nature Reviews Genetics. Vol. 6: 533 - 543. (History of synthetic biology and the interface with synthetic chemistry)

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iGEM 2005 News

• Life is what you make it (Editorial by Nature)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Designs on life (News story of iGEM2005 by Erika Check)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Live From the Lab, a Culture Worth a Thousand Words (News summary By Andrew Pollack)
  New York Times. 24 November, 2005.

• Foundations for engineering biology (Essay defining Synthetic Biology by Drew Endy)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Let us go forth and safely multiply (Essay on Ethics by George Church)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Reconstruction of genetic circuits (Review of the field by David Sprinzak& Michael B. Elowitz)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Engineering Escherichia coli to see light (short research report from UT-Austin's iGEM teams)
  Nature. 24 November, 2005.

• Meeting Report: Synthetic Biology Jamboree for Undergraduates (summary of undergraduate competition called iGEM)
  Cell Biology Education. 2005. Vol. 4: 19 - 23.

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Research Papers in Synthetic Biology

Robert T. Batey, Sunny D. Gilbert, and Rebecca K. Montange. 2004. Structure of a Natural Guanine-responsive Riboswitch Complexed with a Metabolite Hypoxanthine. Nature. Vol. 432. 411 - 415. (Basic Research Paper)

• News Summary of Batey et al. 2004. (Summary of paper above)

Laising Yen et al. 2004. Exogenous Controlof Mammalian Gene Expression through Modulation of RNA Self-cleavage. Nature. Vol. 431: 471 - 476. (Basic Research Paper)

Yina Kuang, Israel Biran, and David R. Walt. 2004. Simultaneously Monitoring Gene Expression Kinetics and Genetic Noise in Single Cells by Optical Well Arrays. Analytical Chemistry. Vol. 76: 6282 - 6286. (Analysis of two promoters)

Sara Hooshangi, Stephan Thiberge, and Ron Weiss. 2005. Ultrasensitivity and noise propagation in a synthetic transcriptional cascade. PNAS. 102(10): 3581–3586. (Basic Research Paper)

Bayer, Travis S. and Christina D . Smolke. 2005. Programmable ligand-controlled riboregulators of eukaryotic gene expression. Nature Biotechnology. 23 (3): 337 - 343. (Antiswithces that turn off or on mRNA translation, regulated by amptamer binding ligands)

• Isaacs, Farren J. and James J. Collins. 2005. Plug-and-play with RNA. Nature Biotechnology. 23 (3): 306 -307. (Commentary on Bayer & Smolke, 2005.)

A synthetic gene–metabolic oscillator. 2005. Eileen Fung, Wilson W. Wong, Jason K. Suen, Thomas Bulter, Sun-gu Lee & James C. Liao. Nature. Vol. 435: 118 - 122. (using metabolic flux as a control factor in
system-wide oscillation)

 

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Review Papers Related to Synthetic Biology

Jennifer A. Doudna. 2000. Structural genomics of RNA. Nature Structural Biology. Structural Genomics Supplement. November, 2000. pages 954 - 956. (The 3D shape and function of RNAs)

 

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