Synthetic gene networks: emerging biotech applications

Synthetic biology is bringing together engineers, physicists and biologists to model, design and construct biological circuits out of proteins, genes and other bits of DNA, and to use these circuits to rewire and reprogram organisms.  These re-engineered organisms are going to change our lives in the coming years, leading to cheaper drugs, rapid diagnostic tests, and targeted therapies to attack "superbugs". In this talk, we highlight recent efforts to create novel synthetic gene networks and programmable cells, and discuss emerging synthetic biology applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.