BBC Horizon: Playing God

Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists. It is part goat, part spider, and its milk can be used to create artificial spider's web. Read more : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n57vm

Synthetic biology helps to develop "greener bombs"

"The objective of this Statement of Need (SON) is to develop innovative synthetic biological approaches to produce critical U.S. military energetic ingredients and their precursors using renewable resources and bioprocesses that reduce hazardous waste streams, energy usage, and waste disposal costs encountered with the existing conventional organic manufacturing processes. Both fundamental research to develop approaches applicable to these classes of compounds as well as applied research targeting a specific energetic compound or precursor is of interest."
Read more here : http://www.serdp.org/content/download/12059/146147/version/2/file/WPSON-13-04+Synthetic+Biology+for+Energetics.pdf

Developing standards in synthetic biology

A very interesting presentation on standardisation in syntheticbiology.

Imagine a world where:

• Each company made its own incompatible nut,  bold and screw?
• Every town had its own way to measure time.
• Every internet provider used different protocols for  the  ‘TCP/IP’ stack, email, web etc. 
• and so on

Standards are vital for the normal functioning of society




The presentation can be found here : www.dsrc.rpi.edu/presentations/RPITalk_2.pptx

workshop book : Synthetic Biology International Workshop – Berkeley 2011

Here you can find the workshop book of the :

“International Synthetic Biology Workshop: A Bio-based Future”

29-31st of August 2011http://synbio.ku.dk/english/past_events/berkeley_2011/

What are the best online synthetic biology resources?

Some good resources on Synthetic Biology : http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-online-synthetic-biology-resources/answer/Alex-Yang-1

Synthetic Biology Workshop Keynote: J. Craig Venter on Synthetic Biology at NASA Ames

The synthetic biology initiative at NASA Ames is designed to harness biology in reliable, robust, engineered systems to support NASA’s exploration and science missions, to improve life on Earth, and to help shape NASA’s future. Read More : http://syntheticbiology.arc.nasa.gov/

What is Synthetic biology?

Visit to the design museum in London. Stumbled on E chromi

Recently I visited London and went to the design museum. There i stumbled on E chromi, one of the entrants of the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM). In the design museum E. chromi was an entrant to the The Brit Insurance Designs Awards, "the Oscars of the design world," 

E. chromi from Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg on Vimeo.

j5: automated DNA assembly software

I have been playing around with this tool, quite fascinating. More on it here : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110816133115.htm


Excerpt  "The j5 software package is a Web-based computer application that automatically designs and optimizes state-of-the-art DNA construction protocols," Hillson says. "Within minutes it can determine the optimal flanking sequences that should be attached to each DNA part to produce the desired recombinant DNA at the least expense, in a manner that is executable by hand or robotics."

"Synthetic Life?" The New Industrial Revolution? (Bioethics Seminar)

From Youtube : Will biological engineering usher in a new industrial revolution? Gregory Kaebnick, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, leads a bioethics seminar on synthetic biology. What is it? Where might it lead? What ethical questions does it raise?

diyBiology - Domestication of biolotechnology

from 'A many colored glass : reflections on the place of life in the universe' by Freeman Dyson

"Domesticated biotechnology, once it gets in the hands of women and children, will give us an explosion of diversity of new living creatures, rather than the monoculture crops that the big corporations prefer. New lineages will proliferate to replace those that monoculture farming and deforestation have destroyed. Designing genomes will be a personal thing, a new artform as creative as painting or sculpture. Few of the creations will be masterpieces, but all will bring joy to their creators and variety to our fauna and flora."