international electronic conference on the societal aspects of synthetic biology

international electronic
conference on the societal aspects of synthetic biology, which will take
place from Monday 5 May to Tuesday 3 June 2008 at
http://www.synbiosafe.eu/forum

This e-conference on ethical, safety, security and other societal issues of
synthetic biology is hosted by “SYNBIOSAFE: Safety and Ethical Aspects of
Synthetic Biology”, a two years FP6 project funded by the European
Commission. The aim is to stimulate an international and inclusive debate on
these issues at an early stage.

After a first fact finding mission we would now like to share our points of
view and discuss selected societal issues and open questions with a wider
group of experts and interested stakeholders. The issues we would like to
discuss fall under the following three areas:

€ Forum I: Ethical Aspects
€ Forum II: Biosafety Challenges
€ Forum III: Biosecurity Awareness

In addition there is also a section on other societal issues, including

€ Forum IV: Intellectual Property Rights
€ Forum V: Regulation and governance, and
€ Forum VI: Public perception, communication and the media

For more information on these thematic areas, specific questions to be
discussed, and how to post a contribution, please have a look at our
background document:
http://www.synbiosafe.eu/uploads///pdf/SYNBIOSAFE-background_paper.pdf

In case of any technical difficulty with the registration, please contact
Gregor Giersch on gregor.giersch@idialog.eu

We would greatly appreciate your help in forwarding this announcement to
your colleagues and networks.

Kind regards,

Markus Schmidt, IDC
SYNBIOSAFE Project Coordinator

IGEM 2008

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Contrasts: Craig Venter and NSABB on synthetic biology

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University of Groningen Forms Synthetic Biology Center

The key research areas of the CSB are as follows:

- cell factories for producing pharmaceuticals (including antibiotics) and important biological proteins
- systems for controlled drug delivery and new diagnostics
- materials (e.g. biosensors and biochips) based on biological components.

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SynBio 4.0

The Fourth International Meeting on Synthetic Biology (SB4.0) will be held from 10-12 October 2008 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

The organization of the event is being led by the BioBricks Foundation in partnership with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

SB4.0 will be a significant meeting, building on the past successes of SB1.0 (MIT), 2.0 (UC Berkeley), and 3.0 (ETH Zurich).

UPDATE: Given all the early progress in synthetic biology, plus how much there is still to do, SB4.0 is going to be an amazing meeting. The organizers of the meeting can’t pretend that we understand everything that should be presented or discussed at the conference. Thus, we are asking for your help. If you would like to suggest a topic for discussion, or organize a breakout session, or can suggest whatever would work best for a particular idea, please join the discussion list and let us know.
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The Open Biohacking Project / Kit

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Pursuing Synthetic Life, Dazzled by Reality NY Times

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What can synthetic biology do for you?

iGEM 2007 participants talk about the potential of synthetic biology at the 2007 Jamboree.
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OneWorld Health, Amyris Biotechnologies and sanofi-aventis Announce Development Agreement for Semisynthetic Artemisinin

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Biologist Venter will be visiting scholar at Origins of Life Initiative Harvard University

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Researchers Develop Method for Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Biomass at High Yields

The synthetic metabolic pathway for conversion of polysaccharides and water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Click to enlarge.

Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory ORNL, The synthetic metabolic pathway for conversion of polysaccharides and water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Click to enlarge.

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here

microorganisms and plants in the synthesis of nanoparticles

Abstract Nanotechnology involves the production,
manipulation and use of materials ranging in size
from less than a micron to that of individual atoms.
Although nanomaterials may be synthesized using
chemical approaches, it is now possible to include the
use of biological materials. In this review, we
critically assess the role of microorganisms and
plants in the synthesis of nanoparticles.
J Nanopart Res (200 10:507–517

The dummy’s guide to engineering genes

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New Bionanoscience dept launched at TU Delft Netherlands

Over the next decade, TU Delft will invest €10m derived from its assets in the new department, which will form part of the university’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience. The Kavli Foundation will also donate $5m (€3.4m).
The new department will explore the full spectrum from nanoscience to cell biology to synthetic biology to create gene regulation systems, artificial biomolecules and nanoparticles that can be deployed within the cell.

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Pursuing Synthetic Life, Dazzled by Reality NY Times

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Solazyme is a synthetic biology company that unleashes the power of marine microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for the renewable energy, industrial chemical, and specialty ingredient markets.

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U.K.’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) note on synthetic biology

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[Synthetic Biology] Bottom-up genome assembly using the Bacillus subtilis genome vector

Japanese group assembles a 134.5 kb rice chloroplast genome from 4-6kb
pieces…

Abstract:
We established a protocol to construct complete recombinant genomes
from their small contiguous DNA pieces and obtained the genomes of
mouse mitochondrion and rice chloroplast using a B. subtilis genome
(BGM) vector. This method allows the design of any recombinant
genomes, valuable not only for fundamental research in systems biology
and synthetic biology but also for various applications in the life
sciences.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=18066072&itool=pubmed_DocSum

Extreme Monopoly: Venter’s Team Makes Vast Patent Grab on Synthetic Genomes

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IGEM International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition 2007

The Winner of this year IGEM (more on IGEM International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition here

Winner Peking University
Towards Self-differentiated Bacterial Assembly Line
Our projects concern with the ability for bacterial cells to differentiate out of homogeneous conditions into populations with the division of labor. We aim at devices conferring host cells with the ability to form cooperating groups spontaneously and to take consecutive steps sequentially even when the genetic background and environmental inputs are identical. To break the mirror in such homogeneous condition, we need two devices respectively responsible for temporal and spatial differentiation. The implementation and application of such devices will lead to bioengineering where complex programs consisted of sequential steps (structure oriented programs) and cooperating agencies (forked instances of a single class, object and event oriented) can be embedded in a single genome. Although this “differentiation” process resemble the development of multicellular organism, we tend to use a more bioengineering style analogy: assembly line. Or maybe after some years from now, this will not be just an analogy.

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second place see some pressrelease here

A biological sensor that catches infections on hospital catheters at an early stage has been developed by Biochemistry and Bioengineering students and researchers at Imperial College London. moresee here

The other projects here