BioTransistors

合成生物学旨在开发协议、可重复使用的生物分子组件和工程工具，以合理设计实现某些生物技术、生物加工或生物医学目的的合成生物系统。它建立在基因工程的基础上，将传统的分子生物学方法与系统级的信息和工程观点相结合。在这个羽翼未丰且迅速发展的学科中，有两条互补的研究路线取得了进展：第一，分子机器已经建成，其特征是模仿电子设备(如开关、简单振荡器和传感器)；第二，途径被重新设计-越来越成功-以可靠的速度生产具有重要生物技术意义的化合物。但迄今为止产生的大多数组件仅限于简单的逻辑元件；同样，大部分工程生物系统都是“愚蠢的”，因为它们以预定的、非适应性的或环境意识的方式履行其功能。在拟议的项目中，我们将尝试生成一种新型的生物分子器件，它模仿电子学中晶体管的特性。晶体管给电子领域带来了革命性的变化，并推动了计算和消费技术的进步。它们被广泛应用于数字和模拟电子设备中，在最基本的层面上，它们是放大和切换信号和电源的设备。它们以比以前的技术更有效的方式做到这一点，以前的技术允许在单个设备中集成大量晶体管，这是现代计算机和处理器技术的基础。在生物领域，晶体管仍然难以捉摸，但非常受欢迎；在最近的调查中，它们被视为合成生物学成为生物技术和生物处理的可靠工具的重要里程碑。拟议的项目将提供晶体管的生物等价物，表征它们在现实生物环境下的设计特征和性能，并调查它们在样本应用中的用途。我们还将进一步确定自然进化的系统在多大程度上已经具有类似晶体管的特征。最后，我们将开发可用于生物合成系统设计的新的统计和计算方法。

Synthetic biology aims to develop protocols, reusable biomolecular components, and engineering tools for the rational design of synthetic biological systems that fulfil certain biotechnological, bioprocessing or biomedical purposes. It builds on genetic engineering and combines traditional molecular biology approaches with systems-level information and engineering perspectives. Progress in this fledgling and rapidly developing discipline has followed two complementary lines of research: first, molecular machines have been constructed and characterised that mimic electronic devices (such as switches, simple oscillators and sensors); second, pathways are reengineered --- increasingly with considerable success --- to produce biotechnologically important compounds at reliable rates. But most components generated thus far are limited to simple logic elements; equally, the bulk of engineered biological systems are ``dumb" in the sense that they fulfil their function in a predetermined and non-adaptive or environmentally aware manner. In the proposed project we will try to generate a novel class of biomolecular device which mimic the characteristics of transistors in electronics. Transistors have revolutionised the field of electronics and fuelled the progress in computing and consumer technologies . They are used widely in digital and analog electronics and at the most basic level they are devices that amplify and switch signals and power. They do so in more efficient way than previous technologies which has allowed the integration of vast numbers of transistors in single devices which underlies modern computer and processor technologies. In the biological domain transistors have remained elusive but are highly desirable; in recent surveys they were regarded as important milestones towards synthetic biology becoming a reliable tool in biotechnology and bioprocessing. The proposed project will deliver biological equivalents of transistors, characterize their design features and performance under realistic biological settings, and investigate their use in exemplar applications. We will furthermore determine the extent to which naturally evolved systems harbour transistor-like features already. Finally, we will develop novel statistical and computational approaches that can be used in the design of biosynthetic systems.