Pier Luigi Luisi & Cristiano Chiarabelli 
Chemical Synthetic Biology 

Chemistry plays a very important role in the emerging field of synthetic biology. In particular, chemical synthetic biology is concerned with the synthesis of chemical structures, such as proteins, that do not exist in nature. With contributions from leading international experts, Chemical Synthetic Biology shows how chemistry underpins synthetic biology. The book is an essential guide to this fascinating new field, and will find a place on the bookshelves of researchers and students working in synthetic chemistry, synthetic and molecular biology, bioengineering, systems biology, computational genomics, and bioinformatics.

Table of Content

List of Contributors.

Introduction (Pier Luigi Luisi).

Part One: Nucleic Acids.

1 Searching for Nucleic Acid Alternatives (Albert
Eschenmoser).

2 Never-Born RNAs: Versatile Modules for Chemical Synthetic
Biology (Davide De Lucrezia, Fabrizio Anella, Cristiano
Chiarabelli, and Pier Luigi Luisi).

3 Synthetic Biology, Tinkering Biology, and Artificial
Biology: A Perspective from Chemistry (Steven A. Benner, Fei
Chen, and Zunyi Yang).

4 Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) as a Tool in Chemical Biology
(Peter E. Nielsen).

Part Two: Peptides and Proteins.

5 High Solubility of Random-Sequence Proteins Consisting of
Five Kinds of Primitive Amino Acids (Nobuhide Doi, Koichi
Kakukawa, Yuko Oishi, and Hiroshi Yanagawa).

6 Experimental Approach for Early Evolution of Protein
Function (Hitoshi Toyota, Yuuki Hayashi, Asao Yamauchi,
Takuyo Aita, and Tetsuya Yomo).

7 Searching for de novo Totally Random Amino Acid
Sequences (Cristiano Chiarabelli, Cecilia Portela Pallares,
and Anna Quintarelli).

Part Three: Complex Systems.

8 Synthetic Genetic Codes as the Basis of Synthetic Life
(J. Tze-Fei Wong and Hong Xue).

9 Toward Safe Genetically Modified Organisms through the
Chemical Diversification of Nucleic Acids (Piet Herdewijn
and Philippe Marliere).

10 The Minimal Ribosome (Hiroshi Yamamoto, Markus
Pech, Daniela Wittek, Isabella Moll, and Knud H. Nierhaus).

11 Semi-Synthetic Minimal Living Cells (Pasquale
Stano, Francesca Ferri, and Pier Luigi Luisi).

Part Four: General Problems.

12 Replicators: Components for Systems Chemistry (Olga
Taran and Günter von Kiedrowski).

13 Dealing with the Outer Reaches of Synthetic Biology
Biosafety, Biosecurity, IPR, and Ethical Challenges of Chemical
Synthetic Biology (Markus Schmidt, Malcolm Dando, and Anna
Deplazes).

14 The Synthetic Approach in Biology: Epistemological Notes
for Synthetic Biology (Pier Luigi Luisi).

Index.

About the author

Professor Dr Pier Luigi Luisi is an acknowledged expert in the field of synthetic biology and supramolecular chemistry, with over 400 scientific papers to his name. He is the author of seven books, including The Emergence of Life. From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology (CUP, 2006). He is now based at Univ. Roma 3, Italy where his research interests are the never-born proteins, and the construction of vesicle-based bioreactors that simulate the main functions of biological cells.

Dr. Cristiano Chiarabelli, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.