Experimental Design for Controller Selection in Synthetic Biology

Abstract

Synthetic biology enables the design of genetic circuits that act as feedback controllers. These controllers are typically designed using computational models, but mismatch between model and real dynamics can lead to controllers that fail in practice. While methods to address this issue exist, synthetic biology introduces additional structural constraints. Genetic circuits are often highly constrained by experimental limitations, reducing controller design to selection among a limited set of implementable circuits rather than an optimization over a continuous space. As a result, multiple system hypotheses may lead to the same optimal controller within the implementable set. Reducing model uncertainty may therefore be irrelevant when the models lead to the same optimal controller. In this paper, we exploit this structure to develop an algorithm for controller selection in synthetic biology, formulating the problem as a decision-oriented experimental design problem over a finite controller set. We represent plant uncertainty using a set of hypotheses and select experiments to minimize the posterior controller selection risk, rather than global model uncertainty. Across three mechanistic case studies, our method reaches the stopping criterion in fewer experimental rounds than model uncertainty and random experiment selection policies, while maintaining a comparable success rate.