With the sequencing of the human genome and the genomes of other organisms, we now have a list of the parts that make up these genetic systems. Using this information, researchers are now able to engineer synthetic genetic circuits for a range of applications in the environmental, medical, and energy domains. Crucial to these efforts' success is the development of methods and tools for designing these genetic circuits. While inspiration can be drawn from experiences with electronic design, design with a genetic material poses several challenges. Genetic circuits are composed of very noisy components making their behavior more asynchronous, analog, and stochastic in nature. This specialization presents recent research into new methods and software tools for the modeling, analysis, and design of genetic circuits that are enabling this exciting new field of synthetic biology. As in the sequencing of the human genome, collaborations between engineers and biologists will be essential to the success of synthetic biology. Therefore, the goal of this specialization is to facilitate these collaborations by teaching both the biological and engineering principles necessary for such research.
MA
Good but the peer review process is so slow. The instructors need to fix this. There has been a backlog of assignments since last year.
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Good but the peer review process is so slow. The instructors need to fix this. There has been a backlog of assignments since last year.
TL;DR: I would recommend this course if you want to learn about SynBio repositories, genetic components (eg. promoters, ribosome binding sites, coding sequences, terminators), some software used by synthetic biologists, and design considerations when engineering a genetic circuit. Drawbacks: The lectures seemed to be aimed toward students at University of Colorado Boulder, and the lecturer mentioned "homework" that was not part of the Coursera course. There are a bunch of resources that are only accessible to students from the university. The lecturer sometimes read the text directly from the slides and didn't elaborate. If you don't have biochemistry knowledge, I think this course would be quite difficult as it didn't seem to be explained very well. If you find that you're getting lost in the biochemistry, here is a breakdown of the most basic and important biochemistry topics you should understand: What is DNA? What is RNA? How do you get RNA from DNA? What is RNA polymerase? How do you get mRNA from RNA? What do proteins do? What are ribosomes? How do you get proteins from mRNA? What are transcription factors? Positives: As somebody with a background in biochemistry, I found this course easy, but I still had the opportunity to learn about online synthetic biology repositories, standardisation of synthetic biology communication, and there were tutorials on some software/websites (Eg. SynBioHub, Benchling, SBOLDesigner). I especially found Module 5 useful, which discussed common problems when designing a genetic circuit, as well as the different types of genetic circuits. Although some of the resources are only accessible to University of Colorado Boulder students, they were not necessary for completing the course. I also really enjoyed the lecture that went over a long list of online synthetic biology resources commonly used by researchers in the field. Overall, I got a lot out of the course, and I'm excited to complete the entire specification. I would have given the course 5 stars if it weren't for the drawbacks I described.
C'est un cours très interressant. Cependant, le système de notation par les élèves est un frein car on ne peux pas avoir de certificat tant que d'autre élèves ne corrigent pas nos devoirs...
no me llego el certificado
Good introduction to the topic. Good lectures.
GOOD