DNA as features: Organic software product lines

Mikaela Cashman, Justin Firestone, Myra B. Cohen, Thammasak Thianniwet, Wei Niu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Software product line engineering is a best practice for managing reuse in families of software systems. In this work, we explore the use of product line engineering in the emerging programming domain of synthetic biology. In synthetic biology, living organisms are programmed to perform new functions or improve existing functions. These programs are designed and constructed using small building blocks made out of DNA. We conjecture that there are families of products that consist of common and variable DNA parts, and we can leverage product line engineering to help synthetic biologists build, evolve, and reuse these programs. As a first step towards this goal, we perform a domain engineering case study that leverages an open-source repository of more than 45,000 reusable DNA parts. We are able to identify features and their related artifacts, all of which can be composed to make different programs. We demonstrate that we can successfully build feature models representing families for two commonly engineered functions. We then analyze an existing synthetic biology case study and demonstrate how product line engineering can be beneficial in this domain.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSPLC 2019 - 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference
EditorsThorsten Berger, Philippe Collet, Laurence Duchien, Thomas Fogdal, Patrick Heymans, Timo Kehrer, Jabier Martinez, Raul Mazo, Leticia Montalvillo, Camille Salinesi, Xhevahire Ternava, Thomas Thum, Tewfik Ziadi
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450371384
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 9 2019
Event23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, SPLC 2019, co-located with the 13th European Conference on Software Architecture, ECSA 2019 - Paris, France
Duration: Sep 9 2019Sep 13 2019

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
VolumeA

Conference

Conference23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, SPLC 2019, co-located with the 13th European Conference on Software Architecture, ECSA 2019
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period9/9/199/13/19

Keywords

  • BioBricks
  • Software product lines
  • Synthetic biology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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