Automating the design-build-test-learn cycle towards next-generation bacterial cell factories

Automation is playing an increasingly significant role in synthetic biology. Groundbreaking technologies, developed over the past 20 years, have enormously accelerated the construction of efficient microbial cell fac-tories. Integrating state-of-the-art tools (e.g. for genome engineering and analytical techniques) into the design -build-test-learn cycle (DBTLc) will shift the metabolic engineering paradigm from an almost artisanal labor to-wards a fully automated workflow. Here, we provide a perspective on how a fully automated DBTLc could be harnessed to construct the next-generation bacterial cell factories in a fast, high-throughput fashion. Innovative toolsets and approaches that pushed the boundaries in each segment of the cycle are reviewed to this end. We also present the most recent efforts on automation of the DBTLc, which heralds a fully autonomous pipeline for synthetic biology in the near future.

Automated summary

Automation is playing an increasingly important role in synthetic biology, greatly speeding up the construction of efficient microbial cell factories. Integrating state-of-the-art tools into the design-build-test-learn cycle will shift metabolic engineering towards a fully automated workflow. This paper provides a perspective on how a fully automated cycle could be used to construct next-generation bacterial cell factories, and reviews innovative tools and approaches that have pushed the boundaries in each segment of the cycle.