Cybergenetics synchronizes cell clocks

The study, led by Professors Diego di Bernardo and Mario di Bernardo, shows thatcells can be induced to synchronize their cell cycle by a computer through a special 'interface'. This will make it possible, for example, to study the biological mechanisms underlying the cell cycle, the regulation of which is the principle of many anticancer drugs.

Cells, therefore, become smart thanks to cyber genetics.

The results of this new research were published in the journal Nature Communications by the team of researchers led by Professor Diego di Bernardo of the Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II - DICMAPI and of TIGEM in collaboration with the group of Professor Mario di Bernardo of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies -DIETI of the Federico II, as part of the European FET-OPEN H2020 project "COSYBIO."

The highly inter-disciplinary research falls under the umbrella of "cyber-genetics," a brand new discipline that integrates biomedical engineering and theory of nonlinear systems and automatic controls with molecular and cellular biology in order to build automatic controllers of biological processes.Specifically , researchers have shown that it is possible to synchronize cell replication in a population of cells by interfacing them with a computer, using control techniques similar to those used for synchronizing networks and circuits in engineering.

These new 'cybergenic' systems could revolutionize in biotechnology the efficiency of producing biological drugs from cells. Moreover, in the not-too-distant future, the same technologies could be miniaturized to regulate biological processes and give rise to true 'cyber drugs' or smart drugs.

Participating in the research were, among others, Sara Napolitano, a doctoral student at DICMAPI, and Davide Fiore of the Department of Mathematics and Applications also at Federico II University.

Full article: Automatic synchronization of the cell cycle in budding yeast through closed-loop feedback control | Nature Communications