RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Software Crisis of Synthetic Biology
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 041640
DO 10.1101/041640
A1 Sergi Valverde
A1 Manuel Porcar
A1 Juli Peretó
A1 Ricard V. Solé
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/02/29/041640.abstract
AB In fifteen years, Synthetic Biology (SB) has moved from proof-of-concept designs to several flagship achievements. Standardisation efforts are still under way, basic engineering concepts such as modularity and orthogonality are still controversial in biology, and making predictions from computer models is still unreliable. A deep characterization in the pattern of re-use of biological blocks in SB has not been attempted to date. We have compared the topological organisation of two different technological networks, one associated to a standard, large-scale software repository and the second provided by the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (RSBP). Our results strongly suggest that software engineering, and not industrial engineering, is the closest complex system to SB. In both cases, combining standard or quasi-standard components assembly with tinkering may not be at odds with success.