1.2 From Biology to Computer Science Summary

summary

Humans have been altering biology for thousands of years through artificial selection.
- Genetically engineered products are now contributing US$400 billion to the GDP.
- Examples include E. Coli engineered to produce hydrocodone and papaya engineered to resist the ringspot virus.
Professor Endy researches how to engineer living matter and what impact it could have.
- To systematically improve at engineering something, we go through iterative Design-Build-Test cycles.
- To make this process more efficient, Endy used DNA synthesis to separate design and construction, set technical standards, and developed ways to manage the complexity of biology.
Professor Endy’s group created the “flipee,” the first synthetic biological logic gate that flips DNA.
The flipee design process took three years and 700 design attempts.