Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 May;12(5):381-90.
doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3239. Epub 2014 Apr 1.

A brief history of synthetic biology

D Ewen Cameron  1 , Caleb J Bashor  1 , James J Collins  2
Affiliations
Review

A brief history of synthetic biology

D Ewen Cameron et al. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2014 May.

Abstract

The ability to rationally engineer microorganisms has been a long-envisioned goal dating back more than a half-century. With the genomics revolution and rise of systems biology in the 1990s came the development of a rigorous engineering discipline to create, control and programme cellular behaviour. The resulting field, known as synthetic biology, has undergone dramatic growth throughout the past decade and is poised to transform biotechnology and medicine. This Timeline article charts the technological and cultural lifetime of synthetic biology, with an emphasis on key breakthroughs and future challenges.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2009 Jun;10(6):410-22 - PubMed
    1. Science. 2011 Dec 23;334(6063):1716-9 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 2005 Apr 28;434(7037):1130-4 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 2011 Dec 18;481(7379):39-44 - PubMed
    1. Science. 2010 Jul 2;329(5987):52-6 - PubMed

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources