Challenge
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a eukaryotic model organism generally regarded as safe， and has a clear genetic background. Due to the abundant organelles and strong ability of homologous recombination, S. cerevisiae shows great potential as biosynthesis host. However, yeast is a kind of monocistron creature, and each gene has its own expression promoter and terminator. Thus, it is still challenging to construct complex metabolic and signal transduction pathways in yeast.
Lack
Synthetic biology follows the research paradigm of Design-Build-Test-Learn. However, in the development of the past three decades, the Design, Test and Learn modules have developed at a very fast pace, with processing fluxes ranging from 103 to 107. On the other hand, for the Build module, the building fluxes generally have remained only single digits, and very few technologies can reach hundreds. Moreover, compared to the Design and Test modules, the Learn module are still developing at a rapid speed, while the Build module is far behind.
Opportunity
The advent of the era of mechanization and automation makes it possible for us to solve the problem of low building fluxes. The speed of building can be significantly improved by replacing humans with machines for a large number of operations. However, due to the lack of rational thinking and ability to face unexpected situations, machine can only carry out single repetitive work. Therefore, only by standardizing the assembly process of DNA with high efficiency and accuracy, can the advantages of machinery be really brought into practice and the efficiency of the Build module be improved.
Idea
We aim to meet the requirements of automation and improve the speed of construction. The DNA assembly process should be efficient and standardized enough to adapt to the mechanical one-stop operation, and then create a set of efficient DNA assembly strategy for yeast.
