Physical principles from evolutionary synthetic biology*

Synthetic biology designs and builds artificial biological systems, using principles from engineering, mathematics and physics. Just like engineering was crucial for many traditional physics discoveries over the past centuries, synthetic biology can advance biological physics by providing sensors, switches, oscillators, control knobs and other tools for quantitatively monitoring and perturbing living cells. Moreover, synthetic biological devices can serve as simple model systems to elucidate complex biophysical processes. For example, synthetic biological devices evolve along with the cells that carry them, providing new opportunities to investigate cellular and molecular evolution. I will present examples of how evolving synthetic gene circuits can provide deeper understanding of evolutionary processes, specifically of gene networks mediating the adaptation of cell populations.