One of the biggest challenges in traditional laboratory settings is performing countless hours of error-prone lab work: handling reagents, incubating reactions or living cells, synthesizing products, applying treatments, and monitoring outcomes. The Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing was established in 2014 to bypass these cumbersome procedures and support a broad array of research goals.

Over the years, the democratization of synthetic biology for the production of food has led to products like the Impossible burger, a burger impostor that uses plant tissues instead of meat. Despite this, food companies remain hesitant to utilize synthetic biology due to concerns with genetically modified foods.

Over the last 17 years, scientists and engineers have developed synthetic gene circuits that can program the functionality, performance, and behavior of living cells. Analogous to integrated circuits that underlie myriad electronic products, engineered gene circuits can be used to generate defined dynamics, rewire endogenous networks, sense environmental stimuli, and produce valuable biomolecules.

These gene circuits hold great promise in medical and biotechnological applications, such as combating super bugs, producing advanced biofuels, and manufacturing functional materials.