Book excerpt: This volume provides clear and direct protocols to implement automated Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) into synthetic biology research. Chapters detail techniques to model and simulate biological systems, redesign biological systems, setting up of an automated biolaboratory, step-by-step guide on how to perform computer aided design, RNA sequencing, microfluidics -using bacterial cell free extracts, live mammalian cells, computational and experimental procedures, metabolic burden, computational techniques to predict such burden from models, and how DNA parts can be engineered in mammalian cells to sense, and respond to, and intracellular signals in general. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Synthetic Gene Circuits: Methods and Protocols aims to ensure successful results in the further study of this vital field.