(340a) Synthetic Biology 2.0: the Dawn of a New Era

Synthetic biology is the design of novel or improved biological systems using engineering principles, which has broad applications in medical, chemical, food, and agricultural industries. Thanks to the rapid advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis, genome editing, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and laboratory automation in the past two decades, synthetic biology has entered a new phase of exponential growth. In this talk, I will highlight our recent work in the development and application of novel foundational synthetic biology tools. Specifically, I will introduce two related stories. One is focused on development of an AI/ML enabled self-driving biofoundry for next-generation synthetic biology applications. The other is focused on design and creation of artificial photoenzymes capable of catalyzing abiological reactions that are extremely difficult or impossible to achieve by either naturally occurring enzymes or chemical catalysts.