Construction and analysis of synthetic eukaryotic gene regulatory networks

“合成生物学”一词用来描述从应用数学和物理生物学到分子遗传学和系统生物学等学科之间的交界处的研究领域。该领域的核心教条基于逆向工程原理：通过将系统拆分成较小的部分，孤立地描述这些部分的特征，然后重新组装它们以了解它们如何协同工作，可以获得对复杂系统的操作和设计原则的最佳洞察。然而，合成生物学研究并不局限于对自然系统的研究。相反，它明确地寻求创造人工系统，赋予活着的有机体新的功能。这项生物系统工程的前提是，DNA编码的“部件”可以被分离并组装成功能上的“装置”，而这些装置又可以组合成更大的电路。

The term "synthetic biology" is used to describe a field of research at the interface between disciplines ranging from applied mathematics and physical biology to molecular genetics and systems biology. The central dogma of the field is based on a principle of reverse engineering: optimal insight into the operation and design principles of a complex system can be gained by breaking the system into smaller parts, characterizing these parts in isolation, and reassembling them to understand how they work together. However, synthetic biology research does not limit itself to the study of natural systems. Rather, it explicitly seeks to create artificial systems that endow living organisms with novel functionalities. This biological systems engineering is based on the premise that DNA-encoded "parts" can be isolated and assembled into functional "devices", which, in turn, can be combined into larger circuits.