{"id":83734,"date":"1900-01-01T10:22:09","date_gmt":"1900-01-01T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/"},"modified":"1900-01-01T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"1900-01-01T08:01:29","slug":"technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/","title":{"rendered":"Technion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"23\"They hope that in the future this will enable the translation of the genome\u2019s \u201coperating system\u201d; they are working in the new field of synthetic biology and believe that this will be \u201cthe high tech of bio tech\u201d<\/h2>\n
The prestigious science journal, Cell<\/em>, reports that Technion researchers in collaboration with Caltech researchers have successfully built a \u201cbiological Rosetta Stone\u201d within a bacterium, by developing a new understanding of the group of bacterial regulators called Enhancers. These objects encompass non-gene coding sequences on DNA, to which proteins attach. These objects function by integrating several proteins, and upon reaching the correct combination, the target gene is expressed. By learning how to \u201cprogram\u201d these enhancer, the researchers hope to gain a more precise control of gene expression. \u00a0\u201cOne of the central discoveries in biology in the post-genome era is the understanding that the main factors contributing to the differences between organisms (for instance, between mice and men) is not the result of genes,\u201d explains Dr. Roee Amit of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion, who began his research as part of a post-doctoral fellowship at Caltech. \u201cThe origin of this difference is in the algorithm or program that determines when, where and how any gene will be expressed. In the past few years a new picture of the genome is becoming clearer, and as a result, also a model in which the genome is perceived as a complex tool for storage and dissemination of information.\u201d<\/div>\n

\u00a0The objective of the Technion researchers is to decode the \u201csoftware\u201d that controls the process and use this knowledge to develop medical applications. \u201cIn order to do this, we intend to create a \u2018Rosetta Stone\u2019 for the gene regulatory code (the original Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele that had the same ancient text inscribed on it in three different languages, as a result of which archaeologists were able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics),\u201d says Dr. Amit. \u201cThis tool will be used to \u2018hack\u2019 the control program of real organisms and consequently allow us to \u2018write\u2019 new programs \u2013 which do not exist in nature \u2013 for medical purposes, environmental applications, etc. Synthetic biology is a new branch of life science, which takes a constructive\/building approach. It attempts to use biological components to construct new biological systems that do not exist in nature. It forces us to really examine our understanding by requiring us to use what we think we understand in order to create biological functions. It allows us to ask why evolution \u201clocked onto\u201d specific patterns, to imagine and create new biological functions and forces us to work in a multidisciplinary fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The approach of researchers in synthetic biology is based on using characteristic genomic components and arranging them together (or \u201cwiring\u201d them to each other) in new architectures. In the next stage they develop patterns based on thermodynamic models, and in the end, they analyze the output using their model. By doing this, they can draw basic programming principles that permit them to translate the architecture and the sequence into computer algorithms. \u201cIf we succeed in writing a sequence that predicts our output based on computerized rules that we found in the \u2018Rosetta Stone\u2019 \u2013 we can then use this \u2018key\u2019 to decipher certain sequences that appear in the genome,\u201d says Dr. Amit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the paper appearing in Cell<\/em>, the Technion researchers show that they can use this approach to develop a new understanding of enhancers among bacteria. These sequences are common to all living creatures and may be thought of as modular objects that can combine \u201cinput\u201d or signals. Because bacterial enhancers have a simpler architecture and at times it is easier to characterize them, the Technion researchers chose to focus on them first. The researches demonstrated the possibility of building new bacterial enhancer programs that will lead to a physical model of the control program, or to the \u201cmachine code\u201d. The researchers note that the type of computerization that takes place in this context is reminiscent of analogue computing processes more than digital ones.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThis Rosetta Stone, in the bacterial context, has enabled us to formulate a new understanding, or qualitative model, for many examples of bacterial enhancers in nature, most of which have never been analyzed,\u201d stresses Dr. Amit. \u201cNow we can understand, at least partially, many natural programs that have not yet been decoded by simply reading the DNA sequence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They hope that in the future this will enable the translation of the genome\u2019s \u201coperating system\u201d; they are working in the new field of synthetic biology and believe that this will be \u201cthe high tech of bio tech\u201d The prestigious science journal, Cell, reports that Technion researchers in collaboration with Caltech researchers have successfully built… Continue Reading Technion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTechnion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium - \u05d4\u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5\u05df-\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05df \u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d5\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Technion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium - \u05d4\u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5\u05df-\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05df \u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d5\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They hope that in the future this will enable the translation of the genome\u2019s \u201coperating system\u201d; they are working in the new field of synthetic biology and believe that this will be \u201cthe high tech of bio tech\u201d The prestigious science journal, Cell, reports that Technion researchers in collaboration with Caltech researchers have successfully built… Continue Reading Technion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u05d4\u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5\u05df-\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05df \u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d5\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1900-01-01T08:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"EladAdmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"EladAdmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technion-researchers-successfully-build-a-biological-rosetta-stone-inside-a-bacterium\/\",\"name\":\"Technion researchers successfully build \u201ca biological Rosetta Stone\u201d inside a bacterium - 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