Synthetic Biology and Therapies for Infectious Diseases

Despite rapid advances in our ability to treat infectious diseases over the last century, infections remain an important source of morbidity and mortality. Challenges in treating infectious diseases include the evolution of drug resistance, the emergence of novel infectious agents, and the difficulties associated with the discovery of new vaccines or therapies using conventional pharmaceutical strategies. Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline that enables rapid and precise genetic engineering of biological systems through technologies such as multiplexed genome engineering, high-throughput DNA synthesis and assembly, and fine-tuning of complex gene regulation. Here, we discuss strategies to combat infectious diseases that have the potential to be further augmented by tools provided by synthetic biology. These approaches may help advance the discovery and creation of vaccines, therapeutic proteins, viruses, bacteria, and natural products for the treatment of infections. Although synthetic biology has just started to be applied to infectious diseases, we believe the integration of this emerging field with other core disciplines, such as microbiology, virology, parasitology, vaccinology, and computational biology, can lead to the development of new therapies and diagnostics to better combat infectious threats of the present and the future.