ACE (Advanced Capabilities in Engineering Biology)
Abstract
The Advanced Capabilities in Engineering Biology (ACE) Program will leverage newly developed technologies for engineering biology towards enabling radical new approaches to solving National Security challenges. Engineering biology is emerging as a new field focused on developing the tools to harness the powerful synthetic and functional capabilities of biology. These tools will facilitate design and biological production of new chemicals and materials, sensing capabilities, therapeutics, and numerous other applications. This rapidly developing technological capability opens the door to new national security applications that have heretofore been out of reach, and offers substantial potential advantages in terms of cost and novel functionality. The ACE program will position the U.S. to be first in exploiting the powerful functional capabilities and applications that arise through being able to harness biological systems. A major impediment to engineering biology is that engineered organisms are often less fit than their precursors and are likely to be outcompeted by other organisms. Fundamental work in this area will focus on engineering biological robustness to ensure that engineered organisms perform as designed over the long-term. Research in this area may include developing methods to ensure genetic integrity of organisms, as well as engineering communities of microorganisms to perform useful tasks, ranging from the production of chemicals to the development of stable microbiomes to prevent and treat disease. .
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2015
- Source ID
- e6fdfdf2098e0725f5c063ced5f7a43a