Expanding the synthetic biology toolbox: engineering orthogonal regulators of gene expression

Despite substantial progress in synthetic biology, we still lack the ability to engineer anything as complex as Nature has. One of the many reasons is that we lack the requisite tools for independently controlling the expression of multiple genes in parallel. While our toolbox is still spare, the situation is rapidly changing. This opinion discusses some recent approaches and open challenges in designing orthogonal regulators of gene expression in bacteria.

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► Our ability to engineering orthogonal transcription factors in bacteria is limited.
► RNA-based regulators are particularly promising.
► Engineered two-component systems offer a new powerful tool.