Fascinated with biology as a subject Steven Rindner, a student in New York with biology as a major, loves to explore new things related to it and share his findings. Synthetic biology to him is a subject worth delving into. Intrigued by it intensely he has thus found that ‘synthetic biology’ is a branch of science that redesigns organisms and makes them useful in different sectors of life by giving them new abilities.
It could also be defined as a branch of science wherein scientists and engineers come together to rework the composition of various components, pathways, and networks. They redesign and restructure those organisms to make them more useful purposes.
Scientists have been working within the realm of this subject and achieved the following:
- The pollutants of air, water, and soil can now be cleaned with the help of micro-organisms which are harnessed for bioremediation.
- The beta-carotene nutrient that was available only in carrots is now inducted into the rice after modification with the help of this branch of science. This is a huge positive shift as this nutrient is helpful in preventing Vitamin A deficiency and rice being a staple food in many places can now help reach that nutrient to more people.
- Rose oil can now be extracted from yeast which helps work as a substitute for real roses and thereby reduction in the destruction of the flower that makes the environment look beautiful.
On studying the subject thoroughly, Steven Rindner digs deeper into the subject to find how synthetic biology will be helpful to mankind in the future. Synthetic biologists expound on the fact that they are capable of creating organisms that can be used to consume the existing toxins in the environment. It is argued that restricting things at the molecular level paves the path to help clean up the environment. Additionally, this branch of science helps to make easier the study and development of antidotes and vaccines for the complex flu strains.
Explanations for the mechanisms of diseases can be found with the help of synthetic biology, this is how the field of medicine is profited by it. All the other areas where synthetic biology contributes positively include the identification of drugs, therapeutic delivery, and treatment as well as production of drugs.
Synthetic biology bears similarity to what is known as ‘genome editing’, which too is a technique that involves changing an organisms genetic coding. The point of difference between the two, that any student of biology as a major like Steven Rindner would know, lies in the way the scientists make the changes in both. In synthetic biology, long stretches of DNA are stitched together by scientists. These pieces of DNA could be taken from the organism or could also be entirely new. Contrarily in genome editing, changes are made in the organism’s own DNA with the help of editing tools.
In a nutshell, it could be said that synthetic biology has been contributing in a revolutionary manner to solving various problems in agriculture, manufacturing, and most importantly medicine.
