Principles of Synthetic Biology: An online course by MITx

Updated: Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 3:36 [IST]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is conducting an online course on Principles of Synthetic Biology. The course enables you to learn how to engineer biological systems and programme organisms to perform novel tasks.

About the Course:

This introductory synthetic biology course starts with a brief overview of the field and then delves into more challenging yet exciting concepts. You will learn how to design your very own biological regulatory circuits and consider ways in which you can apply these circuits to real-world problems we face today.

From basic oscillators, toggle switches, and band-pass filters to more sophisticated circuits that build upon these devices, you will learn what synthetic biologists of today are currently constructing and how these circuits can be used in interesting and novel ways.

Course Syllabus:

Modern techniques in DNA assembly and regulation of gene expression and protein activity
How to design basic biological circuits
Principles for creating large-scale biological circuits and regulatory networks
Basic ODE modeling of biological systems with MATLAB

Course Details: