A Synthetic Biology Approach to the Realization of Embedded Feedback Controllers for Chemical Reaction Networks

Chemical Reaction Network (CRN) models based on the mass-action law play an important role in the life sciences, since they can be used to describe dynamical processes of interest in many fields of chemistry and biology. A fundamental challenge related to this kind of systems is represented by the lack, within the framework of Systems and Synthetic Biology, of a general methodology to design control systems for CRNs. The main issue addressed by this work is the development of a general methodology for designing embedded feedback control schemes for an assigned CRN, i.e. controllers that are themselves realizable through a CRN. In particular, we illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by designing a proportional feedback controller for a well-characterized biochemical system.