Chemical Synthetic Biology

by Luisi, Pier Luigi; Chiarabelli, Cristiano

• ISBN13: 9780470713976
• ISBN10: 0470713976
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-04
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Chemistry plays a very important role in the emerging field of synthetic biology. In particular, chemical synthetic biology is concerned with the synthesis of chemical structures, such as proteins, that do not exist in nature. With contributions from leading international experts, Chemical Synthetic Biology shows how chemistry underpins synthetic biology. The book is an essential guide to this fascinating new field, and will find a place on the bookshelves of researchers and students working in synthetic chemistry, synthetic and molecular biology, bioengineering, systems biology, computational genomics, and bioinformatics.

Author Biography

Professor Dr Pier Luigi LuisiProfessor Luisi is an acknowledged expert in the field of synthetic biology and supramolecular chemistry, with over 400 scientific papers to his name. He is the author of seven books, including "The Emergence of Life. From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology" (CUP, 2006). He is now based at Univ. Roma 3, Italy where his research interests are the never-born proteins, and the construction of vesicle-based bioreactors that simulate the main functions of biological cells.

Dr. Cristiano Chiarabelli, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Nucleic Acids	p. 5
Searching for Nucleic Acid Alternatives	p. 7
Never-Born RNAs: Versatile Modules for Chemical Synthetic Biology	p. 47
Synthetic Biology, Tinkering Biology, and Artificial Biology: A Perspective from Chemistry	p. 69
Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) as a Tool in Chemical Biology	p. 107
Peptides and Proteins	p. 119
High Solubility of Random-Sequence Proteins Consisting of Five Kinds of Primitive Amino Acids	p. 121
Experimental Approach for Early Evolution of Protein Function	p. 139
Searching for de novo Totally Random Amino Acid Sequences	p. 155
Complex Systems	p. 175
Synthetic Genetic Codes as the Basis of Synthetic Life	p. 177
Toward Safe Genetically Modified Organisms through the Chemical Diversification of Nucleic Acids	p. 201
The Minimal Ribosome	p. 227
Semi-Synthetic Minimal Living Cells	p. 247
General Problems	p. 287
Replicators: Components for Systems Chemistry	p. 289
Dealing with the Outer Reaches of Synthetic Biology Biosafety, Biosecurity, IPR, and Ethical Challenges of Chemical Synthetic Biology	p. 321
The Synthetic Approach in Biology: Epistemological Notes for Synthetic Biology	p. 343
Index	p. 363
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