Title:
Upscaling Engineering of Synthetic Biomachines via Synthetic Cells
Abstract:
The goal of this talk is to proselytize an approach to synthetic biology that can serve as a starting point for a larger effort in developing an engineering discipline capable of designing and implementing synthetic biomachines at scale (complexity and use). We are focus on the use of “developer cells”, a class of non-living biological machines, constructed from biological components such as lipids, amino acids, proteins, and DNA. Developer cells do not mutate or evolve, allowing more systematic and repeatable engineering, and also providing significant advantages in environments where it may not be desirable to deploy genetically engineered organisms. A major element of our work is the development of open source tools that help “routinize” the creation of developer cells. We anticipate that the methods we develop can also serve as a testbed for engineering methods in living organisms.
Bio:
Richard M. Murray received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology in 1985 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He is currently the Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Control & Dynamical Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech. Murray’s research is in the application of feedback and control to networked systems, with applications in synthetic biology and autonomy. Current projects include design and implementation of synthetic cells and design, verification, and test synthesis for discrete decision-making protocols for safety-critical, reactive control systems.
1:30pm, Remsen Hall 1