Synthetic biology

In 1974, the Polish geneticist Waclaw Szybalski introduced the term 'synthetic biology', writing: Let me now comment on the question 'what next'. Up to now we are working on the descriptive phase of molecular biology. But the real challenge will start when we enter the synthetic biology phase of research in our field. We will then devise new control elements and add these new modules to the existing genomes or build up wholly new genomes. This would be a field with the unlimited expansion potential and hardly any limitations to building 'new better control circuits' and ...finally other 'synthetic' organisms, like a 'new better mouse'. I am not concerned that we will run out exciting and novel ideas, in the synthetic biology, in general.