Editing Designer Microbes and the Future of Industrial Biotechnology (section)

== <span style="color: #FFFFFF;">Understanding</span> ==
Designer microbes are understood through '''Programming''' and '''Production'''.

'''1. The "Drug" Factory (Metabolic Engineering)''':
"Reprogram a yeast cell to make medicine."
* (See Article 101). **"Artemisinin"** — "A Critical" "Anti-Malarial Drug" — "Costs" "$2,000/kg" to "Extract" from "Sweet Wormwood."
* **"Jay Keasling"** "Engineered" **"Yeast"** with "The Artemisinin" "Biosynthesis Pathway" — "Allowing" "Industrial Fermentation" to "Produce" it at **"$100/kg."**
* "This" "Saved" **"Millions of Lives"** in "Sub-Saharan Africa."
* "Life" is **"A Chemical Plant."**

'''2. The "Material" Cell (Bio-Manufacturing)''':
"Grow your building materials in a vat."
* (See Article 692). "Traditional" "Materials" (Plastics, Metals, Textiles) "Require" "Energy-Intensive" "Industrial Processes."
* **"Designer Microbes"** can "Produce" **"Bioplastics," "Spider Silk," "Carbon Nanotubes,"** and "Even" **"Diamonds"** through "Fermentation."
* "The" "Energy Cost" is "A Fraction" of "Industrial" "Production."
* "Material" is **"Biological."**

'''3. The "Living" Sensor (Biosensing)''':
"Bacteria that glow when they smell pollution."
* (See Article 736). **"Genetic Circuits"** "Can" "Make" "Bacteria" "Express" "Fluorescent Proteins" (see Article 301) "In Response" to "Specific" "Chemical Signals."
* "Deploy" these "Bacteria" in "A Contaminated Lake" — "They Glow" "Where" "The Pollutant" is "Present."
* "This" is **"Living Sensor Technology"** — "Cheap," "Scalable," "Self-Replicating."
* "Sensing" is **"Biological."**

'''The 'JCVI Syn3.0' Minimal Cell (2016)'''': **J. Craig Venter** "Created" a "Cell" with "Only" **"473 Genes"** — "The Smallest" "Known" "Genome" of "A Self-Replicating" "Organism." "Remarkably," the "Function" of **"149 of These Genes"** is "Still Unknown." It proved that "Life" can be **"Rebuilt From Scratch"** — "But" we "Still Don't Fully Understand" "Even" "Its Minimal Version."
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