Sensing the future of bio-informational engineering

Thomas A. Dixon; Thomas C. Williams; Isak S. Pretorius

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2

Sensing the future of bio-informational engineering

Thomas A. Dixon^*, Thomas C. Williams, Isak S. Pretorius

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

101 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The practices of synthetic biology are being integrated into ‘multiscale’ designs enabling two-way communication across organic and inorganic information substrates in biological, digital and cyber-physical system integrations. Novel applications of ‘bio-informational’ engineering will arise in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, precision medicine and next-generation biomanufacturing. Potential developments include sentinel plants for environmental monitoring and autonomous bioreactors that respond to biosensor signaling. As bio-informational understanding progresses, both natural and engineered biological systems will need to be reimagined as cyber-physical architectures. We propose that a multiple length scale taxonomy will assist in rationalizing and enabling this transformative development in engineering biology.

Original language	English
Article number	388
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2
Publication status	Published - 15 Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 1.83 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{0fe566e2199147ef9430c8cb5711c4f7,

title = "Sensing the future of bio-informational engineering",

abstract = "The practices of synthetic biology are being integrated into {\textquoteleft}multiscale{\textquoteright} designs enabling two-way communication across organic and inorganic information substrates in biological, digital and cyber-physical system integrations. Novel applications of {\textquoteleft}bio-informational{\textquoteright} engineering will arise in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, precision medicine and next-generation biomanufacturing. Potential developments include sentinel plants for environmental monitoring and autonomous bioreactors that respond to biosensor signaling. As bio-informational understanding progresses, both natural and engineered biological systems will need to be reimagined as cyber-physical architectures. We propose that a multiple length scale taxonomy will assist in rationalizing and enabling this transformative development in engineering biology.",

author = "Dixon, {Thomas A.} and Williams, {Thomas C.} and Pretorius, {Isak S.}",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.",

year = "2021",

month = jan,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

pages = "1--12",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Springer, Springer Nature",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sensing the future of bio-informational engineering

AU - Dixon, Thomas A.

AU - Williams, Thomas C.

AU - Pretorius, Isak S.

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2021/1/15

Y1 - 2021/1/15

N2 - The practices of synthetic biology are being integrated into ‘multiscale’ designs enabling two-way communication across organic and inorganic information substrates in biological, digital and cyber-physical system integrations. Novel applications of ‘bio-informational’ engineering will arise in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, precision medicine and next-generation biomanufacturing. Potential developments include sentinel plants for environmental monitoring and autonomous bioreactors that respond to biosensor signaling. As bio-informational understanding progresses, both natural and engineered biological systems will need to be reimagined as cyber-physical architectures. We propose that a multiple length scale taxonomy will assist in rationalizing and enabling this transformative development in engineering biology.

AB - The practices of synthetic biology are being integrated into ‘multiscale’ designs enabling two-way communication across organic and inorganic information substrates in biological, digital and cyber-physical system integrations. Novel applications of ‘bio-informational’ engineering will arise in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, precision medicine and next-generation biomanufacturing. Potential developments include sentinel plants for environmental monitoring and autonomous bioreactors that respond to biosensor signaling. As bio-informational understanding progresses, both natural and engineered biological systems will need to be reimagined as cyber-physical architectures. We propose that a multiple length scale taxonomy will assist in rationalizing and enabling this transformative development in engineering biology.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099450980&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-20764-2

M3 - Article

C2 - 33452260

AN - SCOPUS:85099450980

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 388

ER -

Sensing the future of bio-informational engineering

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this