for mere mortals

(albeit ones who know a bit of differential calculus)

Biological circuit design is the science of abstracting natural biological processes by defining them as you would any synthetic circuit. It also allows us to create our own circuits out of natural components. As CalTech's open-source Biocircuits course states:

Indeed, the marvelous progression of electronic circuit capabilities [...] could well describe biological circuits decades from now. Like electronics, we may will soon be able to program cellular “miracle devices” to create “little gadgets” that address serious environmental and medical applications.

That CalTech course will be the main source for this presentation.

Let's dive in!