Synthetic Biology
Re-engineered biology to create and improve organisms.
What is synthetic biology?
Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary science with the potential to impact academic and industrial applications including the creation of novel therapeutics and vaccines, plant science and biofuels. The focus is often on generating, characterizing, and isolating parts of natural biological systems before using them as components of an engineered biological pathway. A trademark of synthetic biology is the application of rational principles to the design and assembly of these biological components. Even with rational design, the impact of introducing foreign DNA into a cell can be difficult to predict. This creates the need to test multiple permutations to obtain the desired outcome. An emphasis on the modular design of DNA parts enables the assembly of a greater variety of potential constructs by interchanging the individual components. Automation of the assembly process reduces the time, labor, and cost of generating multiple constructs to allow for an increase of throughput with an overall shortened development cycle.
Double-stranded DNA fragments are designed for easy gene construction. The assembled constructs are typically cloned into an expression vector and verified with colony qPCR or Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). However, in some high-throughput workflows this verification step can be optional. The synthetic constructs are then analyzed in variety of functional assays. After learning from the assay results, the constructs can then be modified or refined. This design, build, test, learn cycle is repeated until a DNA construct is obtained that produces the desired function.
What are the benefits of synthetic biology?
Accelerated Bioproduction
Synthetic biology enables the rapid development and production of valuable molecules, ranging from biofuels and pharmaceuticals to specialty chemicals. By harnessing the power of genetic engineering, scientists can engineer microorganisms to efficiently produce desired compounds in large quantities. Key advantages include:
- Sustainability and environmental impact
- Medical breakthroughs
- Industrial applications
The DispenCell Single-Cell Dispenser is a gentle solution for generating clonal cell lines
Metabolic engineering β combining computational modeling, advanced genetic tools, and high-throughput screening β is accelerating the design and optimization of biological pathways. This integrated approach enables scientists to engineer microorganisms with enhanced productivity, paving the way for breakthroughs in bioproduction.
What are some synthetic biology applications?
Synthetic biology enables the design and construction of bespoke biological systems with desired functionalities.
Design. Build. Test. Learn.
The Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) approach used in strain engineering has an almost limitless potential to design and develop large, diverse libraries of biological strains. This often requires robust and repeatable, high-throughput molecular cloning workflows to increase the productivity of target molecules such as nucleotide transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. Successful synthetic biology often relies on the power of microbes. Traditional screening methods of transformed bacterial colonies using sterile pipette tips, toothpicks, or inoculation loops are highly prone to human error, labor-intensive, and time-consuming, creating bottlenecks in your molecular cloning workflows.
High-throughput synthetic biology applications such as strain engineering will benefit greatly from the increased productivity of a robot-controlled microbial colony picker such as our QPix 400 Series Microbial Colony Picker, which picks up to 30,000 colonies per day with automatic pick run data tracking and database management. QPix can be integrated into an end-to-end molecular workflow, which allows users higher throughput and more walkaway time, leading to more opportunity to focus on the learning component of the DBTL approach β informing subsequent designs of new strains.
Re-engineer your manual synthetic biology workflow with QPix
1. Plating: Plating is the initial step in synthetic biology research, where microbial cells or genetic constructs are spread onto solid agar plates to form individual colonies. To streamline this process, automated systems such as robotic colony platers can be employed. These systems use high-density arraying techniques, allowing for the simultaneous plating of numerous samples in a precise and efficient manner. This automation saves time and reduces the potential for human error, enabling researchers to plate larger numbers of samples in less time.
2. Screening: After plating, the next step is screening the colonies to identify those of interest. Traditionally, this has been done manually, with researchers visually inspecting and selecting colonies based on certain characteristics. However, to increase throughput, automated colony screening systems are becoming increasingly popular. These systems utilize image analysis and machine learning algorithms to rapidly identify and categorize colonies based on predefined criteria. Automating this process allows large numbers of colonies to be screened quickly, saving time and reducing subjectivity.
Automated microbial colony picking systems, like our QPix 400 series, offer the unique option to simultaneously detect colonies and quantify fluorescent markers in a pre-screening step before picking.
3. Picking: Once colonies of interest have been identified, the picking process begins. Traditionally, this step has relied on manual techniques, such as using sterile pipette tips, toothpicks, or inoculation loops. However, employing automated colony pickers enhances throughput. These advanced systems utilize robotic arms with fine tips or needles to precisely and rapidly transfer selected colonies into various downstream applications. Automated colony pickers can handle a high number of samples per hour, significantly increasing throughput and reducing labor-intensive tasks.
Some of the benefits of automated colony picking for synthetic biology:
- Enables higher throughput while minimizing manual labor
- Provides consistent, objective colony picking instead of subjective, manual picking
- Accommodates a broad range of different applications
- Electronic data tracking allows for well-documented data control
4. Replicating: A crucial step in synthetic biology research, replicating selected colonies enables the preservation and distribution of genetic material for further analysis and experimentation. Manual replication involves streaking colonies onto multiple plates, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Use automated colony replication systems to streamline this process. These systems employ robotics and high-density arraying techniques to simultaneously replicate colonies onto multiple plates, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
5. Re-arraying: Re-arraying involves transferring colonies from their original plates into new formats or containers for long-term storage or additional experiments. This step is critical for maintaining large collections of genetic resources and facilitating high-throughput workflows. Automated re-arraying systems, such as robotic colony pickers with barcode readers and liquid handling capabilities, can accurately and efficiently transfer colonies into different formats, such as microplates or storage tubes. By automating re-arraying, researchers can achieve standardized and error-free transfer processes, enabling better organization and accessibility of genetic resources.
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Small Footprint. Big Impact: The QPix XE Microbial Colony Picker allows you to focus on discovery instead of repetitive, error-prone tasks. Ideal for small lab spaces with no compromise on efficiency, with advanced imagining and robotic capabilities, the QPix XE allows for further integration into an automated work cell for throughput growth or walkaway time.