Genetic circuit design from an electronics perspective

Synthetic genetic circuits are examined from an electronic circuit design perspective. The design of an amplifier is used to explore interactions between genetic elements used as circuit components. A stochastic simulation is developed. This is used to analyze performance in terms of elementary notions of feedback, gain and noise. Degradation reactions, analogous to leakage off circuit capacitors, are found to have considerable impact on circuit response. For the non-linear gain element used in our exemplary circuit, the selection of bias level plays an important role in determining circuit behavior.