The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has submitted their synthetic biology report to President Obama in December. Since then it was often disscussed in public, last time on 3rd of February in the Center for American Progress. Next meeting of the Comission is in Washington, D.C.on Feb. 28 – March 1, 2011.
For more information visit: http://www.bioethics.gov/
As part of the 70th Harden conferences the biochemical society UK will organize a conference about synthetic biology. The conference” Synthetic biology: design and engineering through understanding” will take place from August 22-26 at the Keele University (UK) and should illustrate the potential of this emerging cross-disciplinary area.
Early application and abstract deadline: 22 June 2011.
Website: http://www.biochemistry.org/tabid/379/MeetingNo/70HDN/view/Conference/default.aspx
The competition for synthetic biology, iGEM, will be organized this year for the eighth time. This year the organizers from the MIT decided to reorganize the competition and to organize Regional Jamborees in Asia, Europe and America. The winning teams of the regional competitions will advance to the World Championship Jamboree at MIT. The changes have become necessary as the number of teams in iGEM has continued to increase (number of participants in 2010: 1300).
Source: http://2010.igem.org/Main_Page
[1] Laboratory of Gene Biodynamics, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. [2] International Cooperative Research Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 5 Sanban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0075, Japan. [3] The Hakubi Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Short summary: The paper describes a new method in synthetic biology using an intracellular protein as a trigger for regulating human cell fate. The authors suppose that the method has potential for curing cellular defects or improving the intracellular production of useful molecules by bypassing or rewiring intrinsic signal networks.
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
Short summary: The paper describes the first use of artificial gene products synthesized to replace natural proteins and to maintain the growth of living cells. A collection of more than 106 de novo designed proteins were tested for the ability to provide biological functions to sustain cell growth in different knockout strains of E. coli. Four different strains were rescued by the artificial gene products. This paper is regarded as a major breakthrough in the emerging field of synthetic biology.
Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, South Kensington, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Short summary: The paper reviews the different techniques used to assembly synthetic DNA and gives an outlook how this important aspect of synthetic biology may proceed in the future.
We wish all fellow researchers and biologists a wonderful and happy Mole day. Today being October 23, it is a great opportunity to commemorate this unit so essential to our work. So let’s hear it for the Mole, even if the day is not yet an official holiday. But be careful: Mole day is only between 6.02 AM and 6.02 PM – so no unduly celebration in the early morning or evening, lest you want to walk the plank into a pool of 6.02 x 1023 molecules of water…
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