GCR: Biomolecular Systems Engineering - Unlocking the Potential of Biological Programming

这项不断增长的融合研究项目旨在发展生物分子系统工程这一新兴领域。为了实现这一目标，该团队整合了合成生物学、蛋白质工程、工艺设计、控制理论和电路设计方面的专业知识。这些学科的融合将促进一种全新的生物编程方法和实现这些目标的工具。拟议工作的重点是通过系统地组织和开发：i)工程工作流程，ii)过程设计工具，iii)标准化部件的管理和验证，以及iv)本科生和研究生教学法来推进生物工程领域，以克服目前与生物工程领域相关的可重复性问题。拟议工作的成功完成将导致为标准化生物单元操作的生产和报告创建系统的工作流程，以及一个新的生物设计软件框架，该框架将能够为各种生物机箱生产可扩展的转录程序、记忆结构和控制系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Growing Convergence Research project aims at development of the emerging field of Biomolecular Systems Engineering. To accomplish this goal the team incorporates expertise from synthetic biology, protein engineering, process design, control theory and circuit design. The convergence of these disciplines will facilitate a radically new approach toward biological programming and the tools to accomplish these goals.The focus of the proposed work is to overcome reproducibility issues currently associated with the field of biological engineering by systemic organization and development of: i) engineering workflows, ii) process design tools, iii) curation and validation of standardized parts and iv), undergraduate and graduate pedagogy to advance the field of biological engineering. Successful completion of the proposed work will result in the creation of systematic workflows for the production and reporting of standardized biological unit operations and a new biological design software framework that will enable the production of scalable transcriptional programs, memory structures, and control systems for a variety of biological chassis.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.