> requires significant external manipulation to do anything useful It seems like artificial metabolic pathways research needs to be an area where boundaries ar

> requires significant external manipulation to do anything useful It seems like artificial metabolic pathways research needs to be an area where boundaries are pushed. It would be fairly useful because it would generalize energy research as well. > start by reducing the number of genes Top down is status quo synth-bio. But, I found it interesting that the new mRNA vaccines used the lipid nanoparticle delivery mechanisms. It seems to be a sort of an early success for bottom-up synth-bio. > Central Dogma for a very good reason. Which is why there are two approaches to "life". 1. what is for all practical purposes, further variations on existing biology 2. a much more profound and general definition of what "life" even is, and the ability to generate lifeforms (whatever that may mean) from just about anything - which may or may not require anything analogous to the central dogma.