Synthetic biology and microelectronics: A similar design flow

In this paper, the potential of microelectronic design methods in synthetic biology is analyzed. Synthetic biology is an emerging domain, which aims to combine biology and genetics knowledge with engineering methods in order to design new biological systems. The argument is illustrated by a case study on a specific biodevice, which is modeled and simulated using three different languages: MATLAB-Simulink and two hardware description languages (VHDL-AMS and VHDL). Whereas the three simulations give equivalent results, HDL modeling is a more relevant approach according to the way the development of synthetic biology is planned.