Prototyping decoders: A computational method for designing synthetic circuits

Cells can respond to stimuli from their environment first by encoding and then by decoding the signal. The mechanisms and molecular networks of decoding short stimuli called transient signals remained a mystery. In Nature Communications, researchers from the Computational Systems Biology group led by Jörg Stelling now present a computational tool that explores thousands of circuit architectures. The method enables rapid prototyping of a synthetic short-pulse decoder in budding yeast.