Abstract

Synthetic biology makes grand claims about the potential from re-engineering of living systems. How does one go about harnessing surprising features of the natural world? What does it take to go from a cute idea to having wide impact? Describing insights from many of the world’s greatest inventors and designers, this talk will consider a path forwards, with reference to my lab’s curiosity about creating the world’s stickiest protein. A special feature of a flesh-eating bacterium enables spontaneous covalent bond formation within its surface proteins. We re-engineered this system to generate an irreversible peptide-protein interaction (SpyTag/SpyCatcher). This reaction is genetically-encodable, super-fast, and specific in bacteria, plants and animals. This Spy toolbox has now been used around the world in thousands of different situations. Applications will be discussed for cancer therapy and vaccination for pandemic threats and global health.