Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

To design cells to spec, researchers still need better tools. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2011 BY KATHERINE BOURZAC Last July , scientists created the first " synthetic cell ," an organism that's controlled by a chemically synthesized genome edited on a computer and stitched together in the lab. One year later, biologists at the  Fifth Annual Synthetic Biology  conference at Stanford University are still struggling to take the next step in the field. Holding them back are the vagaries of biology itself, and the expense and time needed to get from idea to engineered organism. While the creation of the synthetic cell, at the J. Craig Venter Institute , hints at a future in which synthetic biologists can redesign living cells to perform whatever tasks they dream up, that goal is still distant. Most research has focused on coaxing microbes to perform tasks that are similar to what they already do, such as transforming sugar into fuels using processes and materials that resemble the on...

A team of researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute has created the first synthetic organellar genome, using a method called isothermal DNA assembly to construct a synthetic mouse mitochondrial genome from hundreds of overlapping oligonucleotides. The work, published online yesterday in   Nature Methods , is the latest in a series of synthetic biology achievements by the group. JCVI researchers reported in  Science  in 2008  that they had put together four Mycoplasma genitalium  quarter genomes in  Escherichia coli  and yeast to create the first synthetic genome, dubbed  M. genitalium  JCVI-1.0. They later tweaked this process, showing that they could assemble the  synthetic  M. genitalium  genome in a single step in yeast. And earlier this year the team took another step toward synthetic life when they made a synthetic  M. mycoides  genome, transplanted it into another bacterial species,  M. capricolum , ...

Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology  &  Centre for Bioinformatics University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Welcome to India's First Symposium on Synthetic Biology                       The event will address several strategic issues: 1. How to design organisms from scratch ? 2. Are we ready for the Computer Aided Design of organisms ? 3. Can we design stable genetic circuits for useful applications ? 4. Have we entered the era of ordering genomes by email ? 5. Is the emergence of biohacking, the next big thing in biology ? Invite you to this first synthetic biology meeting in India . The evolving synthetic biology community in our country needs to discuss unique ideas, interest groups, synergies, funding avenues and useful applications. The key goal will be to identify areas where India has potential to take global leadership.     Welcome to BIODESIGN INDIA 1.0   Share | ...