New method for turning genes on and off could enable more complex synthetic biology circuits

MIT researchers have shown that they can turn genes on or off inside yeast and human cells by controlling when DNA is copied into messenger RNA—an advance that could allow scientists to better understand the function of those genes.

The technique could also make it easier to engineer cells that can monitor their environment, produce a drug or detect disease, says Timothy Lu, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering and the senior author of a paper describing the new approach in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.

"I think it's going to make it a lot easier to build synthetic circuits," says Lu, a member of MIT's Synthetic Biology Center. "It should increase the scale and the speed at which we can build a variety of synthetic circuits in yeast cells and mammalian cells."