Guest Editorial

Systems biology and synthetic biology are closely intertwined. Systems biology employs mathematical models and data mining techniques to unravel the biological networks underlying the working mechanisms of cells. Synthetic biology aims at building novel synthetic networks, which can alter cell behavior in order to perform useful tasks. Integrating both fields can have a big impact on the diagnosis and treatment of major diseases. In this Special Issue, Azzawi et al. propose a new method to classify and predict lung cancer using gene expression profiles. Cancer biomarkers can be exploited by synthetic biology devices, such as gene circuits, to build cheaper and more effective medical diagnostic devices. Borri et al. present a theoretical analysis of how to engineer metabolic pathways to reduce heterogeneity induced by biological noise in metabolite production across cells. The authors perform a comparison of two negative feedback loop schemes involving either product-feedback, or enzyme-feedback. They show that both can substantially reduce biological noise. Gawthrop et al. describe the application of control-theoretic approaches to biomolecular network models obtained using bond graphs, in order to investigate modularity in biological circuits. Together with biological noise, modularity is a major issue to consider when designing synthetic circuits. This is critical when the goal is to isolate each functional module within the circuit in order to maintain its correct function independent of the others it is connected to. These three manuscripts are examples of how essential the methodological tools and biological knowledge utilised in systems biology are in informing biological circuits’ design in Synthetic Biology. Diego di Bernardo was awarded an M.Eng. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy in 1996. He completed his Ph.D. at the School of Medicine, University of Newcastle, UK in 2001, in the lab of Prof. Alan Murray. This was supported by a 3-year European Commission “Marie Curie” Fellowship. He joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Center in Cambridge (UK), as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Tim Hubbard's group.In 2002 he moved to the Department of Bioengineering at Boston University, to work with Prof. James Collins. In 2003 he joined the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine in Naples, Italy, where he became a Principal Investigator and Head of the Systems Biology research program. In 2015 he became Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the department of Computer Science and Systems, at the University of Naples “Federico II”.. His research interests are systems and synthetic biology, with particular emphasis on reverse-engineering gene networks to elucidate disease gene function, the mode-of-action of novel pharmacological compounds, and the application of control engineering to modulate gene expression in cells. He is the author of more than 80 peer reviewed publications, and he has co-organised several international workshops and conferences in computational and systems biology. His research is funded by: the Italian Telethon Foundation, Italian Government, European Union and Human Frontier Science Program.