Quantitative Design of Layered Genetic Circuits

Engineered bacteria have broad potential for biotechnology, including materials production, food and energy, industrial biosynthesis, and biosensing. Synthetic genetic circuits enable the rational programming of bacterial behavior to respond to specific environmental signals with conditional gene expression. To advance genetic circuit design capabilities, we have developed a forward- engineering approach that uses characterized transcriptional modules and quantitative modeling of circuit function. Using this approach, we have designed and implemented complex multi- input, multi-output genetic logic gates. These circuits demonstrate the recent strides made toward engineering novel cellular behaviors de novo.