Synthetic biology has the potential to bring about great benefits to society. This interdisciplinary research area covers many subjects including mathematics, engineering and biology. What is lacking at the moment is a framework that allows for the robust design and realization of synthetic biological circuits. In this paper we show how a classical control framework can be used to formally specify design criteria and realize a biologically implementable lead-lag controller from genetic constructs. A loop shaping approach is used to obtain the desired closed loop response.