Biological Insights from Synthetic Biology.

It is a great pleasure to introduce this Integrative Biology themed issue on Synthetic Biology. The articles featured here cover a refreshingly diverse range of themes. Indeed, they are a testament to the truly exciting breadth of innovative research being pursued by synthetic biologists. Synthetic biology represents a powerful approach to increasing our understanding of the organization and function of biological systems found in nature. Moreover, the tools and techniques being developed are enabling unprecedented manipulation and measurement of biological systems. Guided by these natural blueprints and new techniques, researchers are considering where synthetic biology can (and should) go, both in application space as well as in design space. How can these fundamentally new technologies be applied to address important societal problems? How do we use synthetic biology to systematically explore, define, and expand the functional space of biological systems? Effectively venturing into these spaces will require a better appreciation of fundamental uncertainties and constraints in biology. This highlights the unique way in which the engineering approach of synthetic biology provides added impetus, as well as new methods, to develop an ever more accurate and quantitative appreciation of the principles underpinning living systems. This themed issue starts off by examining fundamental challenges in the a Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain b Biomedical Engineering Department, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA c School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]