Recent advancements in synthetic biology: Current status and challenges

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and circuits not existing in nature. It provides a novel solution to imminent challenges in a wide variety of fields, including the discovery of new drugs, production chemicals, renewable biofuels, value-added products and cellular reprogramming. Many efforts have been made to design and characterize synthetic genetic parts, including promoter, transcription factors, RBS, degradation tags and transcriptional terminators, among others. These genetic parts have been assembled for construction of a number of synthetic devices and circuits like oscillators, toggle switches, amplifiers and biologic gates; they play a vital role in cell reprogramming for better understanding of cellular mechanisms and control of biological process. They are also useful for the periodic and tunable production of drugs, fine chemicals, vaccines and much more. It is the goal of this review to aid and accelerate future research in synthetic biology. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.