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Synthetic biology: lessons from the history of synthetic organic chemistry

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The mid-nineteenth century saw the development of a radical new direction in chemistry: instead of simply analyzing existing molecules, chemists began to synthesize them—including molecules that did not exist in nature. The combination of this new synthetic approach with more traditional analytical approaches revolutionized chemistry, leading to a deep understanding of the fundamental principles of chemical structure and reactivity and to the emergence of the modern pharmaceutical and chemical industries. The history of synthetic chemistry offers a possible roadmap for the development and impact of synthetic biology, a nascent field in which the goal is to build novel biological systems.

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Figure 1: Chemical synthesis and theories of structure emerged concurrently.
Figure 2: Synthesis and analysis are complementary.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Chau, M. Cohen, N. Helman, B. Rhau, J. Taunton and A. Watters for their comments on this Commentary. This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health Roadmap, the US National Science Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the Rogers Family Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brian J. Yeh is in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, 600–16th Street, San Francisco, California 94158-2517, USA.,

    Brian J Yeh

  2. Wendell A. Lim is in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, 600–16th Street, San Francisco, California 94158-2517, USA, and is a member of the Cell Propulsion Lab, USF/UCB National Institutes of Health Nanomedicine Development Center, and the US National Science Foundation Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center. lim@cmp.ucsf.edu,

    Wendell A Lim

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Yeh, B., Lim, W. Synthetic biology: lessons from the history of synthetic organic chemistry. Nat Chem Biol 3, 521–525 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0907-521

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