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. 2011 Jan 26;56(3):229–237. doi: 10.1007/s11434-010-4304-z

Synthetic biology: From the first synthetic cell to see its current situation and future development

LiuYan Zhang 1, SuHua Chang 1, Jing Wang 1,✉
PMCID: PMC7088918  PMID: 32214738

Abstract

Synthetic biology is an emerging field, which, since its birth, has shown great value and potential in many fields including medicine, energy, environment and agriculture. It is also important for the study of the origin and evolution of life. Since the publication of the first synthetic cell in May, 2010, synthetic biology again attracts high attention and leads to extensive discussions all over the world. There have been a number of researches and achievements on synthetic biology in the United States and European countries. While in China, so far there is no systematic research on synthetic biology. In order to promote the development of this new discipline in China, we organized this review to systematically introduce the concept and research content of synthetic biology, summarize the achievements, and investigate the current situation in both China and abroad. We also analyzed the opportunities and challenges in synthetic biology, and looked forward to the future development of synthetic biology, especially its future development in China.

Keywords: synthetic cell, synthetic biology, minimal genome

Footnotes

This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

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