Researchers Create Most Complex Synthetic Circuit Ever Lee
Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online MIT researchers
have developed circuit components that can produce the most
complex synthetic circuit ever built. The circuit, which was
reported in the journal Nature, integrates four sensors for
different molecules, and can be used in cells to precisely
monitor their environment and respond appropriately. The team
had previously designed bacteria that could respond to light and
capture photographic images, and others that can detect low
oxygen levels and high cell density. However, Christopher Voigt,
an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT, said
that they were just repackaging the same circuits over and over
again. In order to expand the number of possible circuits, the
team needed components that would not interfere with each other,
so they started to study the bacterium that causes salmonella.
The team found 60 different versions of a pathway that consists
of an activator, a promoter