About This Project

Building complex biological systems with many genes requires isolating genes. Active genes can cause nearby DNA to become supercoiled, leading to unpredictable behavior of synthetic biology systems. We will test if DNA clamps (made from DNA-binding proteins) placed between genes can stop this interference. If this project succeeds, it will allow bioengineers to build more predictable genetic circuits.

What is the significance of this project?

If successful, a DNA-binding, gene- isolating clamp could be used in any multi-gene circuit assembly, making multi-gene assemblies more predictable and their assembly much more efficient.

This is particularly relevant when engineering metabolic pathways to produce chemicals like methanol, insulin, or antibiotics, where circuits of many genes are routinely constructed. The physical layout of these circuits can unpredictably affect production of the desired output by several orders of magnitude, so large engineered metabolic pathways must typically be hand-tuned or have many configurations screened for activity. By making gene expression more predictable, our results could greatly improve the predictability (and, therefore, designability) of large gene circuits for metabolic engineering.