What is synthetic biology’s role in combating COVID-19?

To halt the global pandemic, solutions are needed to rapidly construct the SARS-CoV-2 genome, genome variants, genome parts for use in the generation of a vaccine and customized oligonucleotide probes and primers for better detection of the virus. Synthetic biologists can use a synthetic version of the virus to start research without losing critical time. Moreover, addressing COVID-19 has proven particularly challenging, as SARS-CoV-2 has the ability to mutate. Thus, the identified number of genome variants of SARS-CoV-2 is likely to impact future efforts towards the prevention, detection, and treatment of the disease.  Synthetic biology can turn to an automated platform for rapid DNA synthesis to generate potential virus variants for  testing potential vaccine candidates.  Also, cell-free synthetic biology has been reported to help produce a drug that has proven effective in obliterating SARS-CoV in cellular cultures. 

References

https://biomarketinsights.com/researchers-hope-cell-free-synthetic-biology-will-help-to-aid-the-acceleration-of-covid-19-therapeutics/
https://frontlinegenomics.com/synthetic-biology-in-the-fight-against-covid-19/