Synthetic Biology
Chairs: | Yaakov Benenson, ETH Zurich (Basel, CH) |
| Bhupinder Bhullar, Novartis Pharma AG (Basel, CH) |
Session Summary:
Drug discovery faces an uphill challenge for new molecules and target disease mechanisms. The revolution in Synthetic Biology promises new power tools to interrogate novel biological space for disease mechanisms and produce complex chemical scaffolds. In this regard, novel reporter mechanisms can be engineered to directly record the activity of molecular pathways. In addition, complex natural product scaffolds can be synthesized in heterologous host cells, where enzymatic modifications can also be executed on this scaffold for Structure Activity relationships. The engineering principles that have guided the emergence of these cellular machines and their application to drug discovery will be explored in this workshop.