Research reveals bacteria could be programmed to produce drugs

The research is led by the Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre at Warwick’s School of Engineering and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey.

The breakthrough helped to develop a system to dynamically manage the allocation of essential resources inside engineered cells, which will help to enhance the capacity of synthetically programming cells to combat disease and produce new drugs.

Researchers have developed a new way to control the distribution of ribosomes, which are microscopic factories’ inside cells that form proteins, to both the synthetic circuit and the host cell

Synthetic circuitry will be added to cells to carry out signaled functions, which will help to produce novel antibiotics and other useful compounds.

A cell includes finite amount of ribosomes, and the synthetic circuit and host cell in which the circuitry is inserted will compete for the limited pool of resources.

Adequate ribosomes are necessary for both to survive, multiply and flourish. Either the circuit will fail or the cell will die without enough ribosomes.

Applying the engineering principal of a feedback control loop, which is used in aircraft flight control systems, the researchers have developed and showed a unique system that can distribute ribosome dynamically.

It will help to allocate more ribosomes when required by synthetic circuit to function properly, and less will be allocated to the host cell, and vice versa.

Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre (WISB) co-director Declan Bates said:“Synthetic Biology is about making cells easier to engineer so that we can address many of the most important challenges facing us today – from manufacturing new drugs and therapies to finding new biofuels and materials.

“It’s been hugely exciting in this project to see an engineering idea, developed on a computer, being built in a lab and working inside a living cell.”

University of Surrey's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences synthetic biology lecturer José Jiménez said: “The ultimate goal of the selective manipulation of cellular functions like the one carried out in this project is to understand fundamental principles of biology itself.”

Image: University of Warwick’s School of Engineering’s bioengineering professor and Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre (WISB) co-director Declan Bates. Photo: courtesy of University of Warwick.