Synthetic Biology Differs from Everything That Has Come Before

April 4, 2019

(The Economist) – TO UNDERSTAND BIOLOGY, synthetic or otherwise, you have to understand how proteins are made. Proteins, which carry out almost all the basic functions of life, from respiration to reproduction, are all made of 20 smaller molecules strung together into a chain. The shapes those chains fold up into in order to fulfil different functions are complex and incredibly hard to predict. But they are almost all entirely determined by the order of these smaller molecules, which are called amino acids.