As synthetic biology permeates society, the signal processing circuits in engineered living
systems must be customized to meet practical demands. Towards this mission, novel …

Understanding how genotypes map onto phenotypes, fitness, and eventually organisms is
arguably the next major missing piece in a fully predictive theory of evolution. We refer to this …

Transcription rates are regulated by the interactions between RNA polymerase, sigma factor,
and promoter DNA sequences in bacteria. However, it remains unclear how non-canonical …

Cells use feedback regulation to ensure robust growth despite fluctuating demands for
resources and differing environmental conditions. However, the expression of foreign …

Legumes obtain nitrogen from air through rhizobia residing in root nodules. Some species of
rhizobia can colonize cereals but do not fix nitrogen on them. Disabling native regulation …

The construction of synthetic gene circuits in plants has been limited by a lack of orthogonal
and modular parts. Here, we implement a CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short …

Engineered genetic systems are prone to failure when their genetic parts contain repetitive
sequences. Designing many nonrepetitive genetic parts with desired functionalities remains …

Accurate measurements of promoter activities are crucial for predictably building genetic
systems. Here we report a method to simultaneously count plasmid DNA, RNA transcripts …

Synthetic gene expression in engineered cells typically depends on the host cell's limited
pool of intracellular resources, which can lead to resource competition between native and …

To perform their computational function, genetic circuits change states through a symphony
of genetic parts that turn regulator expression on and off. Debugging is frustrated by an …