Solving Real-World Problems with Synthetic DNA

In April, 2000, Stanford chemist, Eric T. Kool, took the stage at an American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco to introduce a research area he called “synthetic biology”. Few in attendance could have foreseen what would come next.

In the span of two decades, synthetic biology has evolved into a valuable research tool and the basis for a number of commercial products, from advanced medicines to synthetic spider silk and, even, the Impossible Burger [1]. Many more applications are on the way, some of which attempt to take on problems of planetary scale, like energy, food and water.

While a number of factors have contributed to synthetic biology’s rapid growth, the development of turnkey services for researchers too often goes unmentioned.

Synthetic biology relies primarily on reading and synthesizing DNA in order to engineer proteins and systems for new uses. Unlike gene cloning, synthetic biology builds genes from the ground up:

• Desired gene sequence is designed and optimized digitally
• Component oligonucleotides are synthesized base-by-base with a biological printer
• The ‘oligos’ are mixed and base pairing directs their assembly into the complete sequence

The process was once time consuming, costly and unreliable, says Nikolai Netuschil, a research and development scientist on the GeneArt team at Thermo Fisher Scientific. But now, “Ordering a gene has reached the point of a commodity. You go on the website and order it,” he says.

Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a range of synthetic biology services, from DNA synthesis to custom clones and protein expression. Available with any service that includes de novo synthesis is access to the GeneOptimizer algorithm.

“It codon-optimizes a customer’s sequence to knock down some of the complexities that might interfere in its assembly,” says Julie Robinson, senior product manager for GeneArt gene synthesis at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “In addition, this tool utilizes more than 20 different protein characteristics to improve expression.”

As the speed and reliability of such services have gone up and costs have come down, more academics and enterprises are making use of synthetic biology. That is powering a wave of basic research and commercial applications. With such tools in hand, researchers are actively developing new methods of food and biofuel production, cutting-edge medicines and even designer fabrics. Not even Dr. Kool could have foreseen that.

For more examples of synthetic biology applications and what the future holds, access the featured resource.

1. Voigt, C.A. Synthetic biology 2020–2030: six commercially-available products that are changing our world. Nat Commun 11, 6379 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20122-2.