Zhanar Abil

We now understand the mechanisms of many different biological processes. However, we still haven’t been able to build a unified theory of life, a theory that would explain life’s origins and describe life beyond the bounds of the singular example of life on Earth. One of the questions that I want to address is: What general properties and processes make up a living system? Bottom-up synthetic biology has the potential to provide invaluable insight for building such a unified theory of life. This research field focuses on one of the greatest goals in synthetic biology today – generating an artificial living system or building a synthetic cell. From a chemical perspective, a living system can be described as an ensemble autocatalytic system that is kinetically stable but far from a thermodynamic equilibrium. Can we re-build a similar system in a lab from non-living components? The long-term goal of my research direction is generating synthetic life that mimics the cyclically catalytic nature of living organisms. To achieve this goal, my lab will build and study a variety of cell-free genetic circuits that close in on themselves in positive feedback loops. I call these circuits Autocatalytic Gene Circuits (ACGCs). My lab is interested in building, evolving, and studying ACGCs with respect to their ability to synthesize biopolymers, evolve, and integrate to more complex genetic networks.

*Abil*, A.M. Restrepo*, C. Danelon, “Clonal amplification-enhanced gene expression in synthetic vesicles.” ACS Synth Biology (2023). doi 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00668 (IF 5.1) *Equal contribution