Electronic computers have revolutionized virtually all aspects of our lives. However, long before these existed, cells have relied on computations implemented using biochemistry to make decisions about how to improve their chance of survival. The emerging field of synthetic biology offers a new perspective on life, attempting to apply engineering principles to modify and repurpose biological systems or even create new ones from scratch. This is opening up exciting opportunities to reprogram cellular functions, enabling us to better understand how biological computations are implemented, as well as providing a window into the inner workings of the living computers that surround us.
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2019 © The Authors
2019
Published by Portland Press Limited under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND)
