Chemistry plays an important role in the emerging field of synthetic biology, providing the technologies that enable much of the research. In particular, chemical synthetic biology is concerned with the synthesis of new biological macromolecular structures (proteins and nucleic acids) and minimal life forms (semi-synthetic minimal cells) not found in nature, and - in contrast to other aspects of synthetic biology - without the use of genetic manipulation.
With contributions from leading internationals experts in the field, Chemical Synthetic Biology shows how chemistry underpins synthetic biology. Topics covered include:
what roles do chemical tools perform in synthetic biology?
synthetic nucleic acids, including never born RNAs and peptide nucleic acids (PNAs)
searching for de novo totally random amino acid sequences
random-sequence proteins consisting of five kinds of primitive amino acids
experimental approaches for early evolution of protein function
synthetic genetic codes as the basis of synthetic life
towards safe genetically modified organisms through the chemical diversification of nucleic acids
the minimal ribosome
semi-synthetic minimal living cells
replicators: components for systems chemistry
biosafety, biosecurity, IPR and ethical challenges of chemical synthetic biology
Chemical Synthetic Biology is an essential guide to this fascinating new field, and will find a place on the bookshelves of researchers and students working in synthetic chemistry, synthetic and molecular biology, bioengineering, systems biology, computational genomics and bioinformatics.
