Engineering multicellular systems: Using synthetic biology to control tissue self-organization

Johnson, Marion B.; March, Alexander R.; Morsut, Leonardo

doi:10.1016/j.cobme.2017.10.008

Cited by 57 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…[36] The excitement for this "synthetic tissue development" or "synthethic morphogenesis" is reflected by a row of recent reviews to which we refer to. [133][134][135][136][137][138] Another field that can greatly benefit from controllable patterning capabilities to create non-homogeneous products is that of bio-derived material production. [139] For example, bacterial curli fibers, involved in biofilm formation, are suitable carriers for surface display of custom molecules due to their simple secretory mechanism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Spatial Patterns

Santos‐Moreno

Schaerli

2018

Adv. Biosys.

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Synthetic biology has emerged as a multidisciplinary field that provides new tools and approaches to address longstanding problems in biology. It integrates knowledge from biology, engineering, mathematics and biophysics to buildrather than to simply observe and perturbbiological systems that emulate natural counterparts or display novel properties. The interface between synthetic and developmental biology has greatly benefitted both fields and allowed us to address questions that would remain challenging with classical approaches due to the intrinsic complexity and essentiality of developmental processes. This Progress Report provides an overview of how synthetic biology can help us to understand a process that is crucial for the development of multicellular organisms: pattern formation. It reviews the major mechanisms of genetically-encoded synthetic systems that have been engineered to establish

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Spatial Patterns

Santos‐Moreno

Schaerli

2018

Adv. Biosys.

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“…Unlike natural systems where it can be difficult to predict experimental crosstalk and outcomes, bottom-up approaches provide superior experimental control by clearly defining experimental inputs and assumptions. Organoids are one area of bottom-up synthetic biology in which groups of cells rather than proteins are utilized as building blocks to reconstitute a synthetic tissue or organ [42]. Introducing control elements via synthetic gene circuits within organoids allows researchers the ability to more closely mimic developmental processes such as differentiation and pattern formation [3,42,43].…”

Section: Bottom-up Synthetic Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the biomedical sciences ready for synthetic biology?

DeNies

Liu

Schnell

2020

Biomolecular Concepts

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AbstractThe ability to construct a functional system from its individual components is foundational to understanding how it works. Synthetic biology is a broad field that draws from principles of engineering and computer science to create new biological systems or parts with novel function. While this has drawn well-deserved acclaim within the biotechnology community, application of synthetic biology methodologies to study biological systems has potential to fundamentally change how biomedical research is conducted by providing researchers with improved experimental control. While the concepts behind synthetic biology are not new, we present evidence supporting why the current research environment is conducive for integration of synthetic biology approaches within biomedical research. In this perspective we explore the idea of synthetic biology as a discovery science research tool and provide examples of both top-down and bottom-up approaches that have already been used to answer important physiology questions at both the organismal and molecular level.

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“…The lack of tissue-specific regenerative capacity, tissue complexity, and 3D connections with other tissues could limit selforganization. 32 For example, self-organization of the multilayered epithelium of the skin in vitro happens spontaneously by self-assembly. In addition, the self-organization of the pancreas or the retina in vitro is limited to the formation of immature beta cells or the optic cup.…”

Section: Limitations Of Self-organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Complex Life Through Self-Organization

Sthijns¹,

LaPointe²,

Blitterswijk³

2019

Tissue Engineering Part A

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Cells are inherently conferred with the ability to self-organize into the tissues and organs comprising the human body. Self-organization can be recapitulated in vitro and recent advances in the organoid field are just one example of how we can generate small functioning elements of organs. Tissue engineers can benefit from the power of self-organization and should consider how they can harness and enhance the process with their constructs. For example, aggregates of stem cells and tissue-specific cells benefit from the input of carefully selected biomolecules to guide their differentiation toward a mature phenotype. This can be further enhanced by the use of technologies to provide a physiological microenvironment for self-organization, enhance the size of the constructs, and enable the long-term culture of self-organized structures. Of importance, conducting selforganization should be limited to fine-tuning and should avoid over-engineering that could counteract the power of inherent cellular self-organization.Self-organization is a powerful innate feature of cells that can be fine-tuned but not over-engineered to create new tissues and organs.

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Engineering multicellular systems: Using synthetic biology to control tissue self-organization

Cited by 57 publications

References 61 publications

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Spatial Patterns

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Spatial Patterns

Are the biomedical sciences ready for synthetic biology?

Building Complex Life Through Self-Organization

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