This is definitely a tough call, when it comes to the career decision. Computer and programming is my life, I cannot live without it. But synthetic biology looks so fu*cking beautiful, funny and fantastic, it successfully convinced me that this will surely be an amazing industry in the future, just like the IT industry we had now. And believe me, somebody will get really rich. Until now this is just an area known by few folks but in less than 10 years, “synthetic biology” will be as popular as “clone”.
And the most important thing is, synthetic biology is a combination of computer science, engineering and molecular biology. It means no matter what kind of scientist, biologist, computer geeks, engineers, can find their own role in this new field.
Oh shit, I just want to dedicate myself into this area. Those presentations in the synthetic biology conference really did their job…
Posted in Thoughts | Tagged Biology |
前两天参加了在歌德堡举办的Synthetic Biology Conference，受到的启发颇多。其中一个是Chris Voigt设计的Toy System。利用现有的从Systems Biology和Bioinformatics的知识，用DNA sequence为细胞编程，然后设计出符合自己需要的细胞。在Slides上他给我们展示了设计时用的流程图，通过一系列与，非操作使不同的输入获得一定的输出。
Chris利用一组对光信号敏感的DNA sequence作为输入模块，然后一个输出墨渍的DNA sequences作为输出模块。通过特定的组合，把他们引入一种bacteria中，然后把一张照片投影到在培养基上面，他们得到了一张照片的拷贝。而且整个过程是同步完成的，不像打印机那样从上到下输出，耗能也是非常小~~
然后Chris又给我们展示了另外一组复杂一点的实验，通过一组逻辑判断的组合，可以让bacteria判断它是否在Bright Area和Dark Area的边缘，然后决定是否输出~~（当然不是因为bacteria有脑子，这些是利用某些DNA在特定条件下才会表达的机理，就像只有在离子浓度高的环境里DNA中决定细胞收缩的基因才会自动表达）然后他们得到了一种可以检测实现photoshop里的铜版操作的细胞。
实际工作没有说的这么简单，要找到合适的基因，要找到合适的载体，要找到合适的引入方式，要确定引入的基因不会互相影响。目前好像还不能引入太多的基因。在做以前还要利用Systems Biology对各种细胞做的models先在电脑里做设计。我认为Synthetic Biology是未来20年内的发展方向。在制药，医疗，能源几乎所有的领域都有影响。
在会上Christ 还介绍了一组储存的基因，不过他说的没听清，好像是利用某些基因在特定条件下会翻转，然后这样信息就被储存在基因里。就像2进制是利用0,1一样，不过基因的组合可比二进制多~
挺令人兴奋的，不是吗？呵呵
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Biology |