By genetically instructing cells to perform tasks that they wouldn’t in nature, synthetic biologists can learn deep secrets about how life works. Steven Strogatz discusses the potential of this young field with researcher Michael Elowitz. The post Can We Program Our Cells? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Making living cells blink fluorescently like party lights may sound frivolous. But the demonstration that it’s possible could be a step toward someday programming our body’s immune cells to attack cancers more effectively and safely. That’s the promise of the field called synthetic biology. While molecular biologists strip cells down to their component genes and molecules to see how they work…