Basic science through engineering? Synthetic modeling and the idea of biology-inspired engineering

•Synthetic biology is typically conceived of as a kind of engineering science.•The relationship of synthetic biology to engineering is more nuanced, involving a reflexive double bind to it.•The combinational modeling practice of synthetic biology is making it more biology-inspired.•One key part of the combinational modeling practice consists of synthetic modeling.•Synthetic models are constructed from biological material on the basis of mathematical models and their simulations

Synthetic biology is often understood in terms of the pursuit for well-characterized biological parts to create synthetic wholes. Accordingly, it has typically been conceived of as an engineering dominated and application oriented field. We argue that the relationship of synthetic biology to engineering is far more nuanced than that and involves a sophisticated epistemic dimension, as shown by the recent practice of synthetic modeling. Synthetic models are engineered genetic networks that are implanted in a natural cell environment. Their construction is typically combined with experiments on model organisms as well as mathematical modeling and simulation. What is especially interesting about this combinational modeling practice is that, apart from greater integration between these different epistemic activities, it has also led to the questioning of some central assumptions and notions on which synthetic biology is based. As a result synthetic biology is in the process of becoming more “biology inspired.”