Life Science Dictionary9 terms

Synthetic Biology Terms

Synthetic biology applies engineering design to living things, building new genetic parts and systems. These terms cover standardized DNA parts such as promoters, ribosome binding sites and BioBricks, genetic circuits and reporter genes, minimal genomes and metabolic engineering.

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BioBrickSynthetic BiologyA BioBrick is a standardized piece of DNA, such as a promoter or gene, flanked by fixed sequences so it can be joined to other parts in a repeatable way.
BioreactorBiotechnologyA bioreactor is a vessel that keeps living cells or enzymes under controlled conditions so they can grow and make a product, such as a drug or vaccine.

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Genetic circuitSynthetic BiologyA genetic circuit is a designed set of genes and regulatory DNA that lets a cell sense inputs and respond in a programmed way, like an electronic circuit.

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PromoterMolecular BiologyIn molecular biology, a promoter is a stretch of DNA, usually just upstream of a gene, where RNA polymerase binds so that transcription can begin.

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Synthetic biologySynthetic BiologySynthetic biology applies engineering design to living systems, building new genetic parts, circuits and genomes so that organisms can do useful jobs.

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