Stepping Stones to Synthetic Biology

Sergio Carrà is Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. He has taught at various universities in Italy, as well as at the Theoretical Chemistry Institute of the University of Wisconsin and the Chemical Engineering Department, University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Academia Europaea. Sergio Carrà won the Antonio Feltrinelli award in 1991, the Mario Giacomo Levi medal in 1997, and the Bonino medal and medal of Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) in 1999. He has received honorary degrees from Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand (in Physics, 2001) and the University of Genova (in Chemical Engineering, 2015). His research interests include molecular thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, catalysis, simulation of chemical processes, and the modeling of advanced material synthesis, and he has co-authored about 450 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Sergio Carrà has held important positions in cultural and scientific institutions such as CNR, INFM, and SCI and has acted as a consultant for various companies.

“This book presents many of the fundamental problems (both historical and current) in synthetic biology. Each chapter serves as a concise review of one particular problem to be surmounted. … readers with a solid foundation in molecular biology will find much that is fascinating as well. … Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above.” (R. K. Harris, Choice, Vol. 56 (12), August, 2019)

• 1 Devils, ratchets and molecular motors.- 2 Energy, entropy and information.- 3 A computer called Universe.- 4 Biomolecules and bioenergetics.- 5 What is life?.- 6 Information and complexity: a metaphor of natural systems and engineering.- 7 The path of evolution in nature and in technology. Digital evolution platform.- 8 Imitation of life: the cell in a silicon chip.-  9 Verum est factum: synthetic biology.- 10 Metabolic engineering: towards the post-oil era?.