Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL): Community-Driven Standard for Communication of Synthetic Biology Designs

The re-use of previously validated designs is critical to the evolution of synthetic biology from a research discipline to an engineering practice.  The Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) is an emerging data and diagrammatic standard for visualizing and exchanging designs within the synthetic biology community.  SBOL represents synthetic biology designs in a community-driven, formalized format for exchange between software tools, research groups and commercial service providers.  As a community-driven standard, SBOL continues to be updated as synthetic biology evolves, with the aim of providing critical communication and interchange capabilities for various aspects of the synthetic biology workflow. In this community update, we present an overview of the standard's current capabilities and ongoing work, including:

* A data model for representing both the structure of complex genetic designs and their operation, including support for reuse of existing modules, composition of regulatory models, and combinatorial genetic

libraries.

* Unambiguous diagrams for communicating genetic designs

* Interoperability with other standards for representing structure and behavior

* Synthetic biology tools enabled by SBOL

* Software libraries to facilitate adoption of SBOL by new synthetic biology tools

* Demonstration of software that supports the standard and can support your research

Finally, we provide an updated roadmap for future development, as well a methods for the broader synthetic biology community to provide input to ensure that the developing standards can best serve their needs and practices.