Synthetic biology is being used in the discovery of novel drug compounds, including those containing non–natural amino acids, novel secondary metabolites, new antibiotics or synthetic DNA vaccines. The field is also providing new and more efficient production platforms involving engineering biology – such as minimal genomes or chassis organisms – for creating new and existing drugs. Recent exciting developments in genomic editing with CRISPR-Cas9 and engineered CAR-T cells have opened up the possibility of new therapeutic treatment for previously intractable diseases.