I hate to be picky, but this is
an announcement that we are searching for a path to organize cells around. A breakthrough or several are needed. It is a little like flying a new flag to see
if anyone salutes.
Of well. Perhaps they can start by organizing a
quaternary logic system around which it may be possible to hang some
biochemistry. I would prefer to never
have to tackle that exercise myself even though I at least know how to start.
Since that is guaranteed to
provide serious headaches, I will be happy to cheer on the sidelines.
Easily 'Re-Programmable Cells' Could Be Key in Creation of New Life
Forms
ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2011) — Scientists at The University of Nottingham
The success of the project to create a 're-programmable cell' could
revolutionise synthetic biology and would pave the way for scientists to create
completely new and useful forms of life using a relatively hassle-free
approach.
Professor Natalio Krasnogor of the University's School of Computer
Science, who leads the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Systems Research
Group, said: "We are looking at creating a cell's equivalent to a computer
operating system in such a way that a given group of cells could be seamlessly
re-programmed to perform any function without needing to modifying its hardware."
"We are talking about a highly ambitious goal leading to a
fundamental breakthrough that will, -- ultimately, allow us to rapidly
prototype, implement and deploy living entities that are completely new and do
not appear in nature, adapting them so they perform new useful functions."
The game-changing technology could substantially accelerate Synthetic
Biology research and development, which has been linked to myriad applications
-- from the creation of new sources of food and environmental solutions to a
host of new medical breakthroughs such as drugs tailored to individual patients
and the growth of new organs for transplant patients.
The multi-disciplinary project, funded with a leadership fellowship for
Professor Krasnogor worth more than £1 million from the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), involves computer scientists,
biologists and chemists from Nottingham as well as academic colleagues at other
universities in Scotland, the US, Spain and Israel.
The project -- Towards a Biological Cell Operating System
(AUdACiOuS) -- is attempting to go beyond systems biology -- the science
behind understanding how living organisms work -- to give scientists the power
to create biological systems. The scientists will start the work by attempting
to make e.colibacteria much more easy to program.
Professor Krasnogor added: "This EPSRC Leadership Fellowship will
allow me to transfer my expertise in Computer Science and informatics into the
wet lab.
"Currently, each time we need a cell that will perform a certain
new function we have to recreate it from scratch which is a long and laborious
process. Most people think all we have to do to modify behaviour is to modify a
cell's DNA but it's not as simple as that -- we usually find we get the wrong
behaviour and then we are back to square one. If we succeed with this AUdACiOuS
project, in five years time, we will be programming bacterial cells in the
computer and compiling and storing its program into these new cells so they can
readily execute them.
"Like for a computer, we are trying to create a basic operating
system for a biological cell."
Among the most fundamental challenges facing the scientists will be
developing new computer models that more accurately predict the behaviour of
cells in the laboratory.
Scientists can already programme individual cells to complete certain
tasks but scaling up to create a larger organism is trickier.
The creation of more sophisticated computer modelling programmes and a
cell that could be re-programmed to fulfil any function without having to go
back to the drawing board each time could largely remove the trial and error
approach currently taken and allow synthetic biology research to take a
significant leap forward.
The technology could be used in a whole range of applications where
being able to modify the behaviour of organisms could be advantageous. In the
long run, this includes the creation of new microorganisms that could help to
clean the environment for example by capturing carbon from the burning of
fossil fuel or removing contaminants, e.g. arsenic from water sources.
Alternatively, the efficacy of medicine could be improved by tailoring it to
specific patients to maximise the effect of the drugs and to reduce any harmful
side effects.
The partners in the project are The University of Nottingham and The
University of Edinburgh in the UK; Arizona State University, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University,
University of California Santa Barbara, University of California, San Francisco
in the US; Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia in Spain; and the Weizmann
Institute of Science in Israel
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