New method for protein circuit engineering in synthetic biology

Understanding and controlling intracellular processes and hence, cell behavior is a key aspect in synthetic biology. Of particular interest is the regulation of signal processing by phosphorylation of effector proteins. However, tools for phosphoregulation in mammalian cells are limited. By repurposing components from bacterial systems, Leo Scheller from the group of Martin Fussenegger and colleagues now present a framework for the generation of new modules for the construction of signaling cascades.