www.synbio.org.uk site news

Synthetic Biology Faculty position

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:06:44 +0100

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Colorado Sate University currently has an open tenure-track position for a scientist with synthetic biology expertise. Information regarding the application process and required application materials may be found at https://www.engr.colostate.edu/cheme/search/

SynBio2010 course in Synthetic Biology at Cambridge

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:56:37 +0100

25 students participated in this year's Summer crash course in Synthetic Biology at the University of Cambridge. The course included lectures and hands-on laboratory sessions covering modern microbiology and molecular genetics techniques, software modelling, literature review, presentation and project-based challenges. The students were drawn from across Biology, Engineering and the Physical Sciences in Cambridge, with visitors from Harvard, KAUST and the Royal College of Arts in London.

Lectures
Introduction to Synthetic Biology (Jim Ajioka), Bacterial gene expression (Jim Haseloff), Molecular Biology techniques (Jim Ajioka), Reporter genes (Jim Haseloff), Experimental Design (Gos...

Synthetic Biology worth $4.5B by 2015

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:50:00 +0100

GIA announces the release of a global market report on Synthetic Biology. Global Synthetic biology market is projected to exceed $4.5 billion by the year 2015. Synthetic biology is expected to provide major advances in the areas of biomedicine, biopharmaceuticals synthesis, biosecurity, energy and environment, sustainable chemical segment, and biomaterials/smart materials production. Significant investments are expected in the synthetic biology field.

San Jose, CA (Vocus) July 13, 2010 -- Synthetic biology is an emerging technology, which enables the creation of organisms from a genetic code that is not found in the natural world. The new biological research area integrates The Cambridge Science Festival
Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge

Meera - This week saw the start of the Cambridge Science Festival. So I've come along to one of the main event days which is Science on Saturday. I've kicked things off today by visiting the plant sciences department and with me to tell me more is Jim Haseloff from the plant sciences department here at...

Royal Society: Future Technologies

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:58:07 +0100

With 5.6 million new hectares (35%) of transgenic crops, Brazil supplanted Argentina to become the 2nd largest cultivator. China's transgenic plantings shrank, although biosafety certificates were issued for Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt) rice and phytase maize, clearing the way to commercialization. The first transgenic high...

NYT article about iGEM2009

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:44:34 +0100

NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE PREVIEW

iGEM2009 and Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering

By JON MOOALLEM (New York Times: Published: February 10, 2010)

IT ALL STARTED with a brawny, tattooed building contractor with a passion for exotic animals. He was taking biology classes at City College of San Francisco, a two-year community college, and when students started meeting informally early last year to think up...

Synthetic Biology at the Wellcome Trust

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:22:04 +0100

Synthetic Biology features in the new window display at the headquarters of the Wellcome Trust at 215 Euston Road, London.
The display features six different projects created by students, graduates and staff from the Design Interactions department at the Royal College of Art, each offering an alternative view of how science could influence our future. The purpose is not to offer predictions, but to inspire debate about the human consequences of different technological futures, both positive and negative, by asking 'What If…?'

Curated by leading London based design duo Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, 'What...

Giant Plant Cells

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:57:44 +0100

Giant plant cells seen at University of Cambridge 800th Anniversary Finale: Confocal images of plant tissues were used by Ross Ashton, projection artist, as part of an amazing laser show. The show was part of a celebration of learning at the University - with the theme of "Transforming Tomorrow". Images spanning fields such as Astronomy, Nanotechnology and Biology were projected over the King's College Chapel, the Gibbs building and the Senate house. Pictures of the light show can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/79524387@N00/sets/72157623050206293/

Original confocal images can be seen at http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/Haseloff/imaging/CellArchitecture/index.html

Glass microbiology

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:01:07 +0100

Glass Microbiology

Luke Jerram turns the world’s deadliest diseases into works of art. The British...

Endnote X3

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:10:38 +0100

EndNote X3

24 June 2009

Thomson Reuters

LEGO-sized hole punch

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:25:23 +0100

LEGO-sized hole punch by MUJI

Paper craft meets LEGO with MUJI's quad hole punch and kits, available November 27th at MUJI Japan. [viaCRAFT]

from: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/lego-sized_hole_punch_by_muji.html

Green Pins

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:59:57 +0100

The Cambridge iGEM2009 team has produced a series of gene expression cassettes that allow in vivo production of a spectrum of pigments in bacteria. More details can be found at http://2009.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Project/Pigments

Carotenoids: The enzymes required for carotenoid production originally come from Pantoea ananatis, and were available in the registry. These were used to produce orange and...

Synthetic operon for violacein production

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:33:30 +0100

The Cambridge iGEM2009 team received sponsorship from DNA2.0 Inc., which allowed them to design and construct a synthetic operon for the biosynthesis of violacein. The operon is 7.5Kb in size, contains 5 genes, and has been submitted to the MIT Registry for Standard Parts in BioBrick format - Part BBa_K274002. Expression of the VioA-E genes results in conversion of L-Tyrosine to an intense violet pigment. Violacein is a hydrophobic compound, and is retained within cells.

Cambridge team wins Grand Prize for iGEM2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:17:20 +0100

The Cambridge team was awarded the Grand Prize at the iGEM2009 Synthetic Biology competition finals at MIT (http://2009.igem.org). This was against stiff competition from over 100 teams in top international institutions. The students (Vivian Mullin, Alan Walbridge, Shuna Gould, Siming Ma, Mike Davies, Megan Stanley and Crispian Wilson), provided a superb description of their work engineering DNA devices for transcriptional tuning and pigment production in environmental biosensors. As well as winning the overall prize for best project, the Cambridge team was awarded a gold medal, and trophy for the best project in the Environment Track.

The scatalog: E. chromi, pigment and poo

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:19:33 +0100

James King, Daisy Ginsberg Tuur Van Balen and Michael Barton, designers-artists-technologists have recently graduated from the Royal College of Arts in London, and have followed the Cambridge iGEM2009 team over the summer, participating in the Synthetic Biology Crash Course.

James and Daisy have delivered their own workshops on design, human engagement and futurology. in addition, they have developed a parallel project, based on the team's production of bacterial pigments. In an imagined application, probiotics might be engineered to express different coloured pigments in response to different gut conditions or upsets....allowing self diagnosis of specific...

Grand Prize for Cambridge iGEM2009 team

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:19:12 +0100

The Cambridge iGEM 2009 team presented their E. chromi project at the iGEM Jamboree at MIT. They described new BioBricks for the production of pigments in bacteria, and sensitivity tuners for the construction of new enviromental biosensors. (1st of November 2009)
The Cambridge iGEM team was awarded the Grand Prize for the iGEM2009 Jamboree - to cap a gold medal and first prize in the Environment track. (Monday 2nd November 2009)

See photos at: http://2009.igem.org/files/video/Cambridge.m4v - including the surprise Happy Birthday song for Mike at the end of the presentation!

See photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/haseloff/collections/72157615302666424/