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 Micklem), Sequencing and Synthesis (Gos Micklem), Microbial Diversity (Keith Johnstone), Open Source technologies (Jim Haseloff), Synthetic Parts, Genes & Circuits (Jim Ajioka and Jim Haseloff), Stochasticity: Noise in Biological Systems (Lorenz Wernisch), Biological Modelling & SBML (Nicolas Le Novere), Modelling for Synthetic Biology (Andrew Phillips), Quorum Sensing (Rita Monson), Synthetic Logic (Gos Micklem), Standards in Synthetic Biology (Dean Madden, National Centre for Biotechnology Education), Microbial Biosensors (Jim Ajioka), Appropriate Technology and Development (David Grimshaw, Practical Action), Anhydrobiosis (AlanTunnacliffe), Chemotaxis (Dennis Bray), Microfluidics and microdroplets (Wolfgang Bauer).

 NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE PREVIEW

iGEM2009 and Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering

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.

News articles:
CUED: The Cambridge 2009 iGEM team awarded the Grand Prize
Wired UK: Building new life forms at the iGEM Jamboree
Discovery Channel: Bright bacteria wins synthetic biology competition
National Public Radio: Students build living microbial machines
Biotechniques: University of Cambridge team wins iGEM synthetic biology competition
Technology Review: A genetically engineered rainbow of bacteria
Molecularist: Report on iGEM09, from a newbie
University of Cambridge press release: Cambridge team wins Grand Prize for iGEM2009

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 November 2009) See a full video of the presentation 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/

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 ailments by inspection of one's poo. James and Daisy attended the iGEM2009 Jamboree, bearing an aluminium case with a scatalog - a collection of coloured poo. 

Be sure to see details of their parallel project at http://www.echromi.com/
See James' collection of images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesking/sets/72157620815624290/
See Daisy's collection of images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandradaisy/sets/72157622584099367/
See Daisy's blog at http://www.daisyginsberg.com/

Cambridge iGEM2009 team

The Cambridge 2009 iGEM team has created two kits of parts that will facilitate the design and construction of biosensors.

Previous iGEM teams have focused on genetically engineering bacterial biosensors by enabling bacteria to respond to novel inputs, especially biologically significant compounds. There is an unmistakable need to also develop devices that can 1) manipulate input by changing the behaviour of the response of the input-sensitive promoter, and that can 2) report a response using clear, user-friendly outputs. The most popular output is the expression of a fluorescent protein, detectable using fluorescence microscopy. But, what if we could simply see the output with our own eyes?

They have produced a set of transcriptional systems for calibrated output - Sensitivity Tuners. They have also successfully expressed a spectrum of pigments in E. coli, designing a set of Colour Generators. See more at: http://2009.igem.org/Team:Cambridge

The Wellcome Trust is offering a number of student stipends to support the participation of a limited number of UK teams in the international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). The stipend will provide promising undergraduates with hands-on experience of synthetic biology during their 2010 summer vacation, with the aim of encouraging young scientists to consider a career in interdisciplinary research.

Bursaries are available for a maximum of ten students per team and for up to ten weeks during the summer vacation. Each bursary provides a stipend of £180 per week. There may be only one application per team for a maximum of ten stipends. Application forms must be completed by a team adviser or sponsor. Application deadline is 10 January 2010. Each student must be at a university within the UK or the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and should be an undergraduate registered for a basic science, engineering, mathematical, physical science, social and ethical science, dentistry, medical or veterinary degree. Each student should be in the middle year/s of a first degree of study (i.e. not in their first or last year) or a medical student between the end of the second year and the end of the penultimate year. More information about the Wellcome Trust scheme can be found at: www.wellcome.ac.uk/igem.

If you are interested in applying for a Wellcome iGEM2010 studentship at the University of Cambridge, forward your details, including a full cv, to Jim Haseloff at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by December 1st, 2009. Funds may also be available for students who don't fit these criteria. Please enquire if interested.

The iGEM Project

by Ellis O'Neill
The Triple Helix, Cambridge 800th Anniversary Edition 2009

A report on participation in the Cambridge 2008 iGEM team. Ellis describes what it was like to participate in this exciting and challenging project in Cambridge. 

Cambridge's team consisted of undergraduates from diverse academic backgrounds. The aim of their project was to produce self-organising bacterial populations that would produce voltage fluxes - similar to action potentials that carry information in the brain.

Download a PDF: http://www.camtriplehelix.com/magazine/Lent09_43.pdf
More information about Triple Helix: http://www.camtriplehelix.com/