TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular Imaging in Synthetic Biology, and Synthetic Biology in Molecular Imaging
AU - Gilad, Assaf A.
AU - Shapiro, Mikhail G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, World Molecular Imaging Society.
PY - 2017/6/1
Y1 - 2017/6/1
N2 - Biomedical synthetic biology is an emerging field in which cells are engineered at the genetic level to carry out novel functions with relevance to biomedical and industrial applications. This approach promises new treatments, imaging tools, and diagnostics for diseases ranging from gastrointestinal inflammatory syndromes to cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. As these cellular technologies undergo pre-clinical and clinical development, it is becoming essential to monitor their location and function in vivo, necessitating appropriate molecular imaging strategies, and therefore, we have created an interest group within the World Molecular Imaging Society focusing on synthetic biology and reporter gene technologies. Here, we highlight recent advances in biomedical synthetic biology, including bacterial therapy, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. We then discuss emerging molecular imaging approaches to facilitate in vivo applications, focusing on reporter genes for noninvasive modalities such as magnetic resonance, ultrasound, photoacoustic imaging, bioluminescence, and radionuclear imaging. Because reporter genes can be incorporated directly into engineered genetic circuits, they are particularly well suited to imaging synthetic biological constructs, and developing them provides opportunities for creative molecular and genetic engineering.
AB - Biomedical synthetic biology is an emerging field in which cells are engineered at the genetic level to carry out novel functions with relevance to biomedical and industrial applications. This approach promises new treatments, imaging tools, and diagnostics for diseases ranging from gastrointestinal inflammatory syndromes to cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. As these cellular technologies undergo pre-clinical and clinical development, it is becoming essential to monitor their location and function in vivo, necessitating appropriate molecular imaging strategies, and therefore, we have created an interest group within the World Molecular Imaging Society focusing on synthetic biology and reporter gene technologies. Here, we highlight recent advances in biomedical synthetic biology, including bacterial therapy, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. We then discuss emerging molecular imaging approaches to facilitate in vivo applications, focusing on reporter genes for noninvasive modalities such as magnetic resonance, ultrasound, photoacoustic imaging, bioluminescence, and radionuclear imaging. Because reporter genes can be incorporated directly into engineered genetic circuits, they are particularly well suited to imaging synthetic biological constructs, and developing them provides opportunities for creative molecular and genetic engineering.
KW - Imaging
KW - Reporter genes
KW - Synthetic biology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013040138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85013040138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11307-017-1062-1
DO - 10.1007/s11307-017-1062-1
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28213833
AN - SCOPUS:85013040138
VL - 19
SP - 373
EP - 378
JO - Molecular Imaging and Biology
JF - Molecular Imaging and Biology
SN - 1536-1632
IS - 3
ER -