General Synthetic Biology Flashcards
- What is biology?
a. the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behaviour, origin, distribution, and relationship to the environment.
- What is genetic engineering?
a. the deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material.
- What are the four stages of investigation for biology?
a. Observation
b. Dissection
c. Mutation
d. Repeat
- Why is observation important to biology?
a. Observation is essential in science. Scientists use observation to collect and record data, which enables them to construct and then test hypotheses and theories.
- Why is dissection important in biology?
a. Physical: It is dissection alone which allows us to recognize and relate body structure in three dimensions.
b. Micro Scale: Allows us to connect the genotype to phenotype
- Why is mutation important in biology?
a. This allows a definitive relationship between genotype and phenotype to be connected
- Why is repeating important in biology?
a. Increases accuracy
- Who was the first person to complete genetic engineering? Year?
a. Cohen and Boyer
b. 1973
- What is Protein Engineering?
a. Protein engineering is the process by which a researcher modifies a protein sequence through substitution, insertion, or deletion of nucleotides in the encoding gene, with the goal of obtaining a modified protein that is more suitable for a particular application or purpose than the unmodified protein.
- What two microorganisms had their genomes fully sequenced first an in what year?
a. S. cerevisiae
b. E. coli
c. 1990
- What is Directed evolution?
a. is a method used in protein engineering that mimics the process of natural selection to steer proteins or nucleic acids toward a user-defined goal. It consists of subjecting a gene to iterative rounds of mutagenesis, selection and amplification.
- In what year where the first synthetic networks created within a cell?
a. 2002
- In what year was the precursor pathway for Artemisinin created?
a. 2008
- In what year was the Artemisinin commercially produced by an engineered strain and by what company?
a. 2013
b. Amyris
- What is Artemisinin?
a. Antimalarial drug for P. Falciparum
- What year did Francis Arnold Nobel prize for directed evolution?
a. 2018
- What is Synthetic Biology?
a. Synthetic biology is a field of science that involves redesigning or creating new organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities.
b. An emerging field of research that aims to combine the knowledge and methods of biology, engineering and related disciplines in the design of chemically synthesized DNA to create organisms with novel or enhanced characteristics and traits that do not exit in nature.
- What are the four synthetic biology principles?
a. Abstraction
b. Modularity
c. Standardisation
d. Design and Modelling
- What is Abstraction?
a. Need to know what the different parts in a system do and what they are in order to build a synthetic organism.
b. Component specification and domain knowledge
- What is Modularity?
a. Modularity is a measure of the structure of networks or graphs which measures the strength of division of a network into modules (also called groups, clusters or communities). Networks with high modularity have dense connections between the nodes within modules but sparse connections between nodes in different modules.
i. And/or logic system
- What is standardisation?
a. Standards, Repeatable, accurate, executable protocols
- What is Design and modularity?
a. Design Build test learn: analytical tools for testing the modules
- What kind of logic is used for creating synthetic models and systems?
a. Boolean Algebra: 1 or 0 T/F
- What kind or parts/bricks are there currently, and approx. how many have been developed?
a. DNA, Protein, and signalling molecules
b. 20,000
- What Modularity considerations are needed to be considered?
a. How do all the parts work together
b. Are their rules for a certain function to take place?
c. Parts device system
- What does the DNA always follow in a synthesised part system?
a. Restriction enzyme assembly standard
- BioBrick parts form the base of the ______ system on which synthetic biology is based.
a. Hierarchical
- BioBrick parts are DNA sequences that follow a specific _______ assembly standard.
a. restriction-enzyme
- BioBricks are the building blocks of synthetic _______ systems in living cells.
a. Biological
- Modularity makes up ______ then systems with the parts.
a. Devices
- Why is it important for the biobricks to be standardised?
a. Ensures people from different laboratories and industries can work together on the same parts
b. Repeatability
- Constituent (__) Part (__) Modules (_____) Device (___) System (___)
a. Nucleotide
b. Genes/Proteins
c. Biochemical reaction
d. Pathways
e. Cells
- What are the four parts of designing and modelling?
a. Design
b. Build
c. Test
d. Learn
- What technologies enable synthetic biology?
a. DNA and Gene synthesis
b. Sequencing
c. Microfluidics
d. Modularity
- What is the difference between genetic engineering and synthetic biology?
a. Synthetic biology is a system level engineering
