@inbook{4b16feaa1d8d474197fcd39d75a27316,
title = "Introduction",
author = "Huimin Zhao",
note = "The era of synthetic biology has arrived. A Google search using {\textquoteleft}synthetic biology{\textquoteright} as a query yielded close to three million hits. A quick search of the scientific literature using {\textquoteleft}synthetic biology{\textquoteright} as a query on the Web of Sciences indicated that the number of research publications increased exponentially from less than three per year in early 2000 to more than 400 in 2011. A growing number of major research centers and institutes were set up in academia to explore exciting research opportunities in synthetic biology in the past few years. Examples include, but are not limited to, the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) funded by the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the Synthetic Biology Institute at the University of California at Berkeley, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the Centers for Synthetic Biology at MIT and University of California at San Francisco, the J. Craig Venter Institute, the recently formed Synthetic Biology Center in the United Kingdom, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences{\textquoteright} Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology in Shanghai, China. In parallel, there are rapidly growing efforts in industry to explore the medical and biotechnological applications of synthetic biology. Exemplary companies include Synthetic Genomics, Amyris, Gevo, Life Technologies, and Ginkgo Bioworks. So what is synthetic biology? Why has synthetic biology suddenly become a buzzword everywhere?",
year = "2013",
doi = "10.1016/B978-0-12-394430-6.00020-0",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9780123944306",
pages = "xiii--xviii",
editor = "Huimin Zhao",
booktitle = "Synthetic Biology",
publisher = "Academic Press",
address = "United States",
}