  Heterologous gene expression draws resources from host cells. These resources
include vital components to sustain growth and replication, and the resulting
cellular burden is a widely recognised bottleneck in the design of robust
circuits. In this tutorial we discuss the use of computational models that
integrate gene circuits and the physiology of host cells. Through various use
cases, we illustrate the power of host-circuit models to predict the impact of
design parameters on both burden and circuit functionality. Our approach relies
on a new generation of computational models for microbial growth that can
flexibly accommodate resource bottlenecks encountered in gene circuit design.
Adoption of this modelling paradigm can facilitate fast and robust design
cycles in synthetic biology.
