How can scientists hack yeasts into making psychoactive drugs? How can we reprogram cancer cells to help us study neurological disease? In the past twenty years, synthetic biology has profoundly impacted scientific research and created a rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar industry. But what is "synthetic biology" and how does it work? This course will begin with a background on molecular biology and explain the basic principles behind many common biological engineering tools. From there, students will learn the ways that scientists can reprogram bacteria, yeast, and human cells to create new technologies. Finally, we will study a few fascinating examples of cutting-edge synbio applications, with emphasis on drug discovery.