Cells navigate environments, communicate and build complex patterns by initiating gene
expression in response to specific signals. Engineers seek to harness this capability to …

We have designed a bacterial system that is switched between different states by red light.
The system consists of a synthetic sensor kinase that allows a lawn of bacteria to function as a …

INTRODUCTION Cells respond to their environment, make decisions, build structures, and
coordinate tasks. Underlying these processes are computational operations performed by …

Genetic programs function to integrate environmental sensors, implement signal processing
algorithms and control expression dynamics 1 . These programs consist of integrated …

Access to fixed or available forms of nitrogen limits the productivity of crop plants and thus
food production. Nitrogenous fertilizer production currently represents a significant expense …

Microbial engineering often requires fine control over protein expression—for example, to
connect genetic circuits 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 or control flux through a metabolic pathway 8 , 9 , …

One approach to reducing the costs of advanced biofuel production from cellulosic biomass
is to engineer a single microorganism to both digest plant biomass and produce …

Engineering commensal organisms for challenging applications, such as modulating the gut
ecosystem, is hampered by the lack of genetic parts. Here, we describe promoters, ribosome…

Bacterial genomes encode the biosynthetic potential to produce hundreds of thousands of
complex molecules with diverse applications, from medicine to agriculture and materials. …

… Christopher A. Voigt. The early ambitions in the field were around the creation of cells
that could go through a series of programmed tasks; for example, Adam Arkin envisioned an …