1. Physics Colloquium

    "Synthetic gene circuits: New research tools for quantitative biology"

    Presented by Gabor Balazsi, Stony Brook U

    Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 3:30 pm
    Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

    Hosted by: Peter Petreczky

    Synthetic biology is a new interdisciplinary field that designs and builds artificial biological systems, using principles from physics, engineering, and mathematics. Recent success stories include the massive, low-cost synthesis of the anti-malaria drug artemisinin, and the construction of genetic switches, oscillators and logic gates. In my laboratory we build synthetic gene circuits and use them as new research tools to precisely perturb cells and watch how they respond. This way, we hope to develop a predictive, quantitative understanding of biological processes such as microbial drug resistance and cancer. We have developed an expanding library of synthetic gene regulatory circuits first in yeast, and then in cancer cells for this purpose. I will illustrate through a few examples how we can gain a deeper, quantitative understanding of microbial drug resistance and cancer using synthetic gene circuits.