Biology, Reimagined: Northwestern's Center for Synthetic Biology at 10

Now That We Can Do Anything, What Should We Do?

In the world of synthetic biology—where scientists and engineers can rewire biological systems to perform remarkable new tasks, like sensing chemicals or delivering therapies—that question could hardly feel more urgent.

Even a mere 10 years ago, when Northwestern Engineering doubled down on its commitment to the field by establishing the Center for Synthetic Biology, researchers required expensive equipment, intricate algorithms, and lengthy experimentation to design and test new ideas.

Now empowered with the center’s automated Foundry lab, team members can use AI tools like AlphaFold to design proteins and use powerful, high-throughput experimental equipment to create and test thousands of designs a day.

“That would have been science fiction five years ago,” says Danielle Tullman-Ercek, James N. and Nancy J. Farley Professor in Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship, professor of chemical and biological engineering, and codirector of the center.

As the field accelerates and the center celebrates its 10th anniversary, faculty point to successes created by the team—new kinds of diagnostics and sensors, more effective therapies—while also looking to the future of the field.

“Here in Chicago and Evanston, we are the third coast of biotech,” says Julius Lucks, Margery Claire Carlson Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and codirector of the center. “The center is at the forefront of developing technologies that can solve key problems in sustainable and responsible ways. It will hopefully transform the world.”

Building Success Through Multidisciplinarity

Northwestern’s reputation as a powerhouse in synthetic biology stems from its multidisciplinary, collaborative team, which represents some of the best minds in engineering, medicine, chemistry, law, policy, and anthropology.

“All of these perspectives are needed when technologies are developed,” Lucks says. “We have one of the largest concentrations of synthetic biology researchers in the country, if not the world. When you’re doing pioneering work, a collaborative team of experts is needed to go after important societal challenges.”

One of those challenges is access to clean water. Over the past several years, Lucks and his collaborators have developed new synthetic biology biosensors that can detect lead and cadmium in water within minutes. The multidisciplinary project benefited from field testing in Costa Rica, Kenya, and Chicago and involved faculty from anthropology, the Pritzker School of Law, and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

Such technology-driven initiatives have also benefited from Northwestern’s strengths in cell-free systems—harnessing the power of biology without being constrained by keeping the “machinery” inside the cell.

Researchers like Neha Kamat, associate professor of biomedical engineering, are taking that idea one step further and creating artificial cells. She and her team build membranes and put cellular machinery inside to perform useful functions, like synthesizing proteins. The goal is to create biosensors that can detect environmental contaminants or early biomarkers for diseases.

“With artificial cells, you can access the biological function that you get from a real cell, but in a very customizable way by building it up from scratch,” she says. “And while regular cells are designed to grow and evolve, artificial cells will not do that. That makes them more controllable and safer.”

Modeling the Complexity of Biology

Northwestern synthetic biology researchers have made major breakthroughs in areas ranging from drug delivery to biofuels. For example:

Danielle Tullman-Ercek, an expert in highly organized self-assembling proteins, has developed a biomanufacturing platform for proteins that could be used to create biofuels and meat alternatives.

Josh Leonard, professor of chemical and biological engineering, developed a platform that uses extracellular vesicles—particles released by cells—to deliver cell and gene therapy medicines.

Jonathan Rivnay, Jerome B. Cohen Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, is developing a “living pharmacy,” an implantable electronic device that uses engineered cells to synthesize and release therapies.

Because biology is so complex, reengineering it to perform new tasks requires not only experimental innovation but mathematical models that describe which of the thousands of parameters that affect a cell’s function are necessary for a certain task. That’s where Niall Mangan, assistant professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics, comes in.

“The art of mathematical modeling is understanding how you pick what’s important,” Mangan says. “We try to blend a combination of intuition with our collaborator’s knowledge and the flexibility of learning new things from the data.”

In one project, she worked with Tullman-Ercek to create a mathematical model of how metabolism is organized in space and time within bacteria—essential background knowledge needed to engineer bacteria to perform new tasks, like creating biofuels or pharmaceuticals.

And as in every research field, AI plays an increasingly large role. Mangan is developing AI-inspired methods, with the goal of automatically building new models for new experiments based on data from previous experiments.

With the automated equipment at the Foundry, “we could close the loop,” she says. “Combining automated experiments with automatic models could help us look at the results and direct the next experiment.”

Educating Students to Ask the Big Questions

Of course, no one is looking to take humans completely out of the loop. That’s why education is such a large part of the center, which has developed a research experience for undergraduates and the first graduate training program in synthetic biology in the United States—both funded by the US National Science Foundation.

The team is even writing a textbook to serve as a foundational tool for teaching synthetic biology. As AI and automated equipment accelerate what the field can do—empowering center members to tackle new challenges, such as using synthetic biology to create fertilizers to help feed the planet—understanding the underlying concepts and their implications is critically important

“We want to educate students to think about the big questions when dealing with synthetic biology,” Tullman-Ercek says. “When we’re considering how to solve a problem, we have to think about whether it is acceptable to pursue and how it will affect society. We want Northwestern to be the place where these questions are asked and where students learn to ask those questions throughout their lives.”