SynBioFromLeukipposInstitute

by

António Roldão, Il-Kwon Kim and Jens Nielsen
"Metabolic engineering, defined as the practice of manipulating cells’ genetic and regulatory processes for improving cellular performance, has been recently integrating systems and synthetic biology with other technologies, e.g. molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, analysis science, bioinformatics and biochemical engineering. The aim is to surmount cells’ performance-related limitations, e.g. metabolic limitation of cellular processes, network rigidity and global regulation, in a comprehensive, rational and high-throughput manner. Using this multi-level/integrated approach, the (re)design and (re)construction of microbial systems for the development of novel products with significant impact on current global problems, e.g. depletion of energy resources and global warming, is becoming a reality.
In the last two decades, technological platforms for systems biology, e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and fluxomics, and synthetic biology approaches, e.g. synthetic biological parts, devices and systems, have been implemented and efficiently used as tools for metabolic engineering of high-value bioproducts. One successful story on how metabolic engineering has been used to enhance the synthesis of microbial-based molecules is the production of biofuels. In this review, synthetic and systems biology technologies for yeast metabolic engineering will be described in detail. In addition, two case studies related with biofuel production (ethanol and 1-butanol) in yeast S. cerevisiae will be presented..."
http://bit.ly/M9u6Mq

*AN EXPERIMENT WITH SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY*

by
PAUL RABINOW AND GAYMON BENNETT

"In 2006 anthropologists Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett set out to rethink the role that human sciences play in biological research, creating the Human Practices division of the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center—a facility established to create design standards for the engineering of new enzymes, genetic circuits, cells, and other biological entities—to formulate a new approach to the ethical, security, and philosophical considerations of controversial biological work. They sought not simply to act as watchdogs but to integrate the biosciences with their own discipline in a more fundamentally interdependent way, inventing a new, dynamic, and experimental anthropology that they could bring to bear on the center’s biological research."

http://bit.ly/KTfE7n

*Synthetic RNAi activators*

http://1.usa.gov/MacVGK

by

Du J, Yuan Y, Si T, Lian J, Zhao H.
"A major challenge in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology is to balance the flux of an engineered heterologous metabolic pathway to achieve high yield and productivity in a target organism. Here, we report a simple, efficient and programmable approach named 'customized optimization of metabolic pathways by combinatorial transcriptional engineering (COMPACTER)' for rapid tuning of gene expression in a heterologous pathway under distinct metabolic backgrounds. Specifically, a library of mutant pathways is created by de novo assembly of promoter mutants of varying strengths for each pathway gene in a target organism followed by high-throughput screening/selection. To demonstrate this approach, a single round of COMPACTER was used to generate both a xylose utilizing pathway with near-highest efficiency and a cellobiose utilizing pathway with highest efficiency that were ever reported in literature for both laboratory and industrial yeast strains. Interestingly, these engineered xylose and cellobiose utilizing pathways were all host-specific. Therefore, COMPACTER represents a powerful approach to tailor-make metabolic pathways for different strain backgrounds, which is difficult if not impossible to achieve by existing pathway engineering methods."

http://1.usa.gov/MzDhUX

Plant biotechnology can be leveraged to produce food, fuel, medicine, and materials.

Synbiota

is a rapidly growing platform of collaborative services built to accelerate your progress. Whether you need a streamlined service to design, store, post, organize, access, or share information, Synbiota has you sorted. Join the Synbiota Beta now!
Be GENtle
Introducing GENtle 2.0 Beta, the web-based DNA design software that seamlessly integrates into the Synbiota Platform. Try it now on desktop and tablet, or get the code at GitHub.

http://bit.ly/O0ImJk

Towards a Synthetic Biology of the Stress-Response and the Tolerance Phenotype: Systems Understanding and Engineering of the Clostridium acetobutylicum Stress-Response and Tolerance to Toxic Metabolites

by
Eleftherios T. Papoutsakis and Keith V. Alsaker
"We discuss experimental and computational systems-biology approaches to support the development of more toxic-metabolite tolerant strains, with emphasis on solventogenic clostridia. We also discuss ideas that have the potential to move the field towards the development of integrated, predictive models of the metabolic and regulatory networks of the stress response to toxic metabolites. Clostridia are Gram+, obligate anaerobic, endospore forming bacteria of major importance to fermentative production of biofuels and chemicals from renewables. We focus on efforts to understand, model and exploit the stress-response of Clostridium acetobutylicum to important toxic metabolites: butanol, butyrate, and acetate. This is a problem of profound and general importance not only in clostridial biotechnologies and systems, but in all microbial systems of interest for bioenergy and chemicals production. Furthermore, the analyses and approaches discussed here are expected to be generalizable and applicable to a much broader set of microorganisms of interest to the production of biofuels and chemicals from renewable sources."
http://bit.ly/Knn7dy

via +Pedro Fernandes

DIY biology

"In the nineteenth century, research in the natural and life sciences was largely self-supported. Charles Darwin had the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family, enabling him to pursue his passions as a gentleman naturalist and to develop the trailblazing theory of evolution. Darwin's good fortune ended up being science's as well. Not incidentally, Darwin also had great connections: His botany professor at Cambridge recommended Darwin as a "scientific person" to Robert FitzRoy, captain of the HMS Beagle. Darwin spent five years traveling on the Beagle and studying the zoology, botany, and geography of new lands.

A free trip around the world to study the natural history of exciting new places? What "scientific person" wouldn't sign up?

Of course, not everyone who wanted to explore the natural sciences had Darwin's financial advantages. Gregor Johann Mendel, the son of a peasant farmer, became a priest and did his research in addition to his duties as a friar. At the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas, Mendel conducted plant-hybridization experiments on a four-acre plot using 10,000 pea plants. He obsessively checked his results, kept meticulous records, and used sophisticated mathematical analysis for his research. Fortunately, Mendel's abbot in charge of the monastery fully supported his scientific endeavors. As a result, Mendel was able to lay the groundwork for the field of genetics and to provide the scientific basis for Darwin's theory of evolution.

In the twentieth century, state-of-the-art biology largely moved from the natural world to high-tech laboratories, where it became prohibitively expensive to conduct self-funded research.

Not anymore.

Welcome to the new millennium of do-it-yourself (DIY) biology. ....."

BY LAURA H. KAHN

http://bit.ly/LCfkya

http://bit.ly/LBpizF