It hosts a catalogue of components, currently comprising around 10,000 parts, available for free for the construction of biological tools.
Just as computers are built from electronic components that (at least in the days before integrated circuits and silicon chips) could be ordered from a catalogue by engineers and enthusiasts alike, so Dr Endy is trying to build up a catalogue of components he calls biobricks that, when linked together, will form useful biological "circuits".
They do this by providing a catalogue of standard components with fixed prices that are available to the projects.
To undertake systems-level analyses of the innate immune response, one must first have a catalogue of the components of the system and how they interact with each other.
The careful cataloguing of retrieved components renders them available for scrutiny indefinitely.
A key initial step in this process is the contextual cataloguing of the components of this system and the molecular interactions that comprise these networks.
It may be more appropriate to say the elucidation of the human genome provides a catalogue of materials and components whose assembly can lead to an enormous number of physiological possibilities.
Already pared down to a catalogue of lightweight, sophisticated components rendered from carbon fibre, magnesium and aluminium, the XL1 lacks those useful pieces of hardware that attentive drivers know as mirrors.
"So triangulating consumer demand (Nokia, for example, has a very strong presence in the next key markets to adopt smartphones), developer demand, partner demand and Microsoft's consumer and developer marketing efforts, we connected with Microsoft to compile the comprehensive catalogue of Windows Phone components," says Pereira.
By capitalizing on an iterative design cycle that involves molecular and computational biology tools to assemble functional designer devices from a comprehensive catalogue of standardized biological components with predictable functions, synthetic biology has significantly advanced our understanding of complex control dynamics that program living systems.
Completed in 1949, as part of Arts and Architecture Magazine's seminal Case Study programme of 36 model dwellings, their house was a low-cost collage of catalogue components, proving what could be done with a standard kit of parts.
