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MOTIVATION
The main intent of biological research is to further a deeper understanding of living systems. After we learned about genetics and biological macromolecules, the next step is to develop a method useful to control all these elements and to combine them in order to create new artificial behaviours. This is the precise objective of synthetic biology: the development of reliable, stable and robust genetic circuits to engineer microorganisms to carry out a function in an established way or to obtain systems that can process useful information.
Relying on mathematical in silico modeling is one of the main priorities if a predictable proceeding is to be obtained. Since we are dealing with the behavior of a complex system, it is fundamental to exploit the potentiality of modeling by describing the behavior of simple modules first and then undertaking the prediction of more complex circuits, in a bottom-up fashion.
Computational sciences allow to disentangle complex cellular networks’ demeanor, especially in a contest of intricate cell-cell interactions. In electronic engineering, circuits consist of several layered semiconductors while in biology homeostasis is obtained trough regulatory networks consisting in interactions taking place between macromolecules linking signals from environment and cells. In this way logic gates have been designed, realized and tested in biological systems. One of the simplest device that has been implemented is an AND gate that can associate two input signals and control various behaviors (Anderson et al. 2007). Also other type of device have been created, like OR, NOT and NOR gates. In addition to these simple logic gates, multiple layered gates have been produced (Tasmir et al. 2010).
Relying on mathematical in silico modeling is one of the main priorities if a predictable proceeding is to be obtained. Since we are dealing with the behavior of a complex system, it is fundamental to exploit the potentiality of modeling by describing the behavior of simple modules first and then undertaking the prediction of more complex circuits, in a bottom-up fashion.
Computational sciences allow to disentangle complex cellular networks’ demeanor, especially in a contest of intricate cell-cell interactions. In electronic engineering, circuits consist of several layered semiconductors while in biology homeostasis is obtained trough regulatory networks consisting in interactions taking place between macromolecules linking signals from environment and cells. In this way logic gates have been designed, realized and tested in biological systems. One of the simplest device that has been implemented is an AND gate that can associate two input signals and control various behaviors (Anderson et al. 2007). Also other type of device have been created, like OR, NOT and NOR gates. In addition to these simple logic gates, multiple layered gates have been produced (Tasmir et al. 2010).
