Harnessing protein biotechnology for synthetic biology
Abstract
Since the beginning of life in Earth (~3-4 billions on years ago), living organisms have adapted to survive in an adverse and continuously fluctuating environment. If the age of planet earth is extrapolated to 24 hours, life appeared approximately the last 12 hours, whereas human species in the last 20 seconds. Primordial life was developed in an environment with no oxygen and no ozone layer,under intense UV radiation. Over the billions of years, life has been adapted to develop in extreme environmental conditions: Microbes live in hot springs at temperatures exciding 90#C, the Alaska#s wood frogs survive long freezing periods, whereas bacterial species (D. radiodurans) survive at gamma radiation 3,000 times the lethal dose for humans. Researchers have shown that earth organisms adapted to survive at extreme environmental conditions (extremophiles), alike the microscopic water bear or tardigrade, could also persist below the surface on Mars. Thus, investigating the extremophiles provides a glimpse of alien life. Humans oftentimes emulatedthe different manifestations of life that took place over billions of years to meet human needs and solve human problems. One of the very first known and important examples are the #flying machines# envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci after observing the anatomy of flying birds. Subsequently, the Wright brothers who managed to create the first aircraft, were also inspired by observing pigeons in flight. The shark skin that reduces the drag, propelling the animal forward, has inspired Speedo & NASA to create the swimming suit used by the US Olympic team in 2008 that won nearly all gold medals, as conferring a huge competitive advantage. The banned suits have the additional property to repel bacteria and other germs from adhering on it due to its surface properties. In another example, Nova labs (UK) has patented a method for long term vaccine storage, without the need of freezing; inspired by anhydrobiotic organisms. The importance ofsuch a method has been conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the vaccine delivery was inefficient in developing countries due to the difficulties in establishing freezing condition. Vaccine storage methods will be critical for human health in the next pandemic disaster. Another case in point is represented by a dessert species, the Saharan silver ant; that its body has been adapted to reflect and dissipate heat. This adaptation can be applied in building and pavements that don#t heat up or ingenerating material that nullify the individual#s thermal signature, rendering those invisible to thermal cameras. It is apparent that by adopting the solutions of Nature to maintain life over billions of years in adverse and continuously fluctuating environmental conditions, we are able to satisfy unmet human needs that could also be adapted to military use. This use of organisms and biological processes to satisfy human needs has occurred since the beginning of our civilization with the domestication of plants, animals and the discovery of fermentation that introduced goods, alike yogurt, cheese and alcoholic beverages. The fields of biotechnology and synthetic biology go far beyond this. Such aim to develop new products by redesigning biological processes and engineering organisms to have new abilities. Using state-of-the-art computational approaches, large and complex circuits can be devised and merged to DNA synthesis technologies. In doing so, the vision is to render cells capable of accomplishing sophisticated novel functions. The elementary unit responsible almost for every biological activity is represented by proteins. While DNA is responsible to store and perpetuate biological information, proteins drive life processes by interacting with almost every molecule and/or polymer. Proteins oftentimes form high-order assemblies, defined as molecular motors. Every living cell can be envisioned as a collection of molecular motors, each responsible to accomplish
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 15, 2024
- Source ID
- N629092412028
Entities
People
- Matthew Baker
Organizations
- Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy