A new step in synthetic biology is to develop biological system which is more complex and more easily controlled. By organizing parts designed, we are expecting to see systems which performing novel functionality, for example timing and counting. Further, an essential factor pushing synthetic biology forward is its prospect of application, which is one of the hard truths of synthetic biology.

This year, our team is aimed at devising a bacteria machine which is more easily programmed with environment signals, performing higher-order functionality. This is especially important for the application of synthetic biology since we always expect a machine which could be automated, programmed, performing different functionality in different period.

2010 Tianjin iGEM team is going to use our machine to optimize the producing process of sparkling wine. Sparlking wine is a costly drink, one kind of which is named Champagne, favored by people around the world. Producing sparkling wine require a long period of fermentation—the reason why it is costly. The classical fermentation process includes two steps, and during the second fermentation, autolysis takes place, which is essential to the flavor, taste and foamability. We expect to program the yeast to speed up the process so as to make sparking wine a more accessible drink.

This requires different aspects of synthetic biology, for example quorum sensing, biosensing, gene circuits, etc.