de Lorenzo V.
The term Genetic Engineering constitutes
a strong metaphor that evokes
the action of joining together otherwise
separate components with given properties
following a rational blueprint; but
this time using genes as the building
blocks of the system. In reality, the type
of Genetic Engineering started by
Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer in
the early 70s was mostly, and for a long
time (until the simplification of DNA
sequencing techniques), a trial-and error
endeavour with very little rational
design. Even when DNA sequences
became prolifically available, such
genetic manipulations depended, to a
large extent, on the operator’s abilities
and were subject to considerable unpredictability.Synthetic Biology (at least one of its branches) improves upon the strong rational and prospective design of early Genetic Engineering with the use of bona fide engineering methodology rather than a simple analogy. Furthermore, Synthetic Biology expands the types of elements that can be incorporated into engineered biological systems far beyond the repertoire of functions and sequences available in the ordinary world. Yet, the transition between natural organisms and progressively synthetic live entities is more a continuum of technologies, concepts and objects than a stepwise process with dramatic gaps.
Synthetic Biology thus embodies and recapitulates much of what has been done in the past and is still done under the frame of Genetic Engineering, although it subsequently takes different directions.