One approach to understanding components in living organisms is to
attempt to create them artificially, using principles of chemistry,
engineering and genetics. A suite of powerful techniques—collectively
referred to as synthetic biology—have been used to produce
self-replicating molecules, artificial pathways in living systems and
organisms bearing synthetic genomes.
In a new twist, John Chaput, a researcher at Arizona
State University’s Biodesign Institute and colleagues at the Department
of Pharmacology, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ have fabricated an
artificial protein in the laboratory and examined the surprising ways
living cells respond to it.
“If you take a protein that was created in a test
tube and put it inside a cell, does it still function,” Chaput asks.
“Does the cell recognize it? Does the cell just chew it up and spit it...
