Chemical approaches to synthetic biology

The term chemical synthetic biology defines that part of the field that, instead of assuming an engineering approach based on genome manipulation, is oriented towards the synthesis of chemical structures alternative to those present in nature. Several different literature projects will be illustrated, including the two of our group. One is concerned with the ‘Never Born Proteins’ (NBPs), namely polypeptide sequences that are not present in nature, the other is concerned with the notion of ‘minimal cells’, semi-synthetic compartments (usually liposomes) containing the minimal and sufficient number of components to perform the basic function of a biological cell.