ABSTRACT
One of the goals of this textbook is to describe how electrical engineering methods can be applied to better understand the behavior of genetic circuits. If this objective is achievable, then it may also be possible to design synthetic genetic circuits that behave like particular electrical circuits such as switches, oscillators, and sequential finite state machines. Synthetic genetic circuits have the potential to help us better understand how microorganisms function, produce drugs more economically, metabolize toxic chemicals, and even modify bacteria to hunt and kill tumors. Genetic engineering has been around for more than 30 years, and it is based on the following three techniques:
• Recombinant DNA - constructing artificial DNA through combinations. • Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) - making many copies of this DNA. • Automated sequencing - checking the resulting DNA sequence.
