Category Archives: Biology

Dr David McClymont discusses automated approaches to DNA assembly used at Imperial College London A snapshot from the video of Dr David McClymont from Labcyte Genomics Symposiums 2017 Based at Imperial College in London, SynbiCITE is the Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) for Synthetic Biology funded by the UK Research Councils, EPSRC and BBSRC, and Innovate UK. Dr David McClymont, Head of Automation at SynbiCITE, discussed automated synthetic biology approaches, at the Labcyte Genomics Symposium. SynbiCITE have taken the standard language and working methods of synthetic biology, combined these with engineering principles, and scaled this up using automation hardware and software to build a high-throughput, industrial-scale facility. This system has been applied to numerous applications including microbial metabolic pathway engineering, and most recently miniaturized, high-throughput cell-free synthetic biology. SynbiCITEs successful automated workflow adopts the BASIC synthetic bio assembly method (Storch, Marko, et al. "BASIC: a new biopart assembly standard for idempotent cloning provides accurate, single-tier DNA assembly for synthetic biology." ACS synthetic biology 4.7 (2015): 781-787), and the integration of Echo acoustic liquid-handling instrumentation. Dr McClymont has integrated these by creating the custom interfacing software AMOS, and, in doing so, produced an accelerated system that brings together the best engineering … Continue reading →

A career as a lab biologist can take many forms, but the general public seems to see it as a lone, lab-coated researcher sitting at a bench, setting up a series of in vitro experiments by hand in small tubes or streaking out a little yeast on an agar plate.Thats not inaccurate at all all of us lab rats have done time with a manual pipettor while trying to keep track of which tube in the ice bucket gets which solution. Its tedious stuff. But because biology experiments generally scale well, and because more data often leads to better conclusions, life science processes can quickly grow beyond what can be handled manually. Ive seen this time and again in my 25 years in science, from my crude grad school attempts to miniaturize my assays and automate data collection to the multi-million dollar robotic systems I built in my career in the pharmaceuticalindustry. Biology can get pretty big in a hurry. Another day at the office. By Maggie Bartlett, National Human Genome Research Institute [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsBeing able to do hundreds of experiments at the click of a mouse is remarkably powerful, but the expense of the equipment involved … Continue reading →

Genomics and systems biology pioneer Lee Hood, who will step down as ISB president in January. (Institute for Systems Biology Photo) Seventeen years after founding the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), spurring the creation of systems biology as a field, genomics and biotechnology pioneer Lee Hood is stepping down as its president. Hood will step down from the position in January, but will remain on ISBs board of directors and at the head of the 30-person Hood Lab. He will also continue to serve as thesenior vice president and chief science officer of the affiliated Providence St. Joseph Health system. Hood will be replaced by well-known biotechnologist and immunotherapy researcherJames Heath, who currently holds an endowed professorship at Caltech. He is also the director of the NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center, professor and co-director at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCLA, and a serial biotechnology entrepreneur. As president, Heath will be responsible for setting the direction for ISBs research and education programs as well as efforts in launching spin out companies and otherwise commercializing the work done in its laboratories. I am extremely honored to assume the position of president of ISB, Heath said in a press release. It … Continue reading →

Adapting platform technologies to push the boundaries of experimental design Snapshot of video from Labcyte Genomics Symposium 2016 GeneMill is an open access synthetic biology foundry, located within the Centre for Genomic Research (CGR) at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Linda DAmore is Operational Manager at the GeneMill Foundry in Liverpool. One of four foundries funded by the BBSRC, it is also part of the Centre for Genomic Research, which offers high-throughput genomics platform analysis. Specifically, GeneMill provides high-throughput construction and testing of synthetic DNA constructs, using a variety of platforms. At the Labcyte Genomics Symposium, Dr. DAmore discussed how miniaturization of synthetic biology has reduced working volumes from 1.5 ml to … Continue reading →

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) Institute for Systems Biology names new president to replace co-founder Leroy Hood Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) James Heath will take over as president of the Institute for Systems Biology in January more. Institute for Systems Biology. Providence acquired Dr. Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology in March 2016. In January 2018, Hood will step down as ... and more » Go here to read the rest: Institute for Systems Biology names new president to replace co-founder Leroy Hood - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) … Continue reading →

Imagine spending countless hours working on a piece of art that is destined to be destroyed. Mangled. Hacked up and tossed aside. All that will remain of your original work is a skeleton of foam, aluminum wire and wood alongside a big pile of clay. This is the reality sculptor David Smus works within every day. After months of intricate detail work and painstaking care, he sacrifices a perfect clay sculpture for the opportunity to create within what is arguably one of the most permanent art forms there is: bronze. As dramatic as it sounds, its all just part of the lost-wax process of metal casting. To get to the bronze end product, Davids clay sculptures are coated with rubber and plaster to make a negative mold, and often they are cut up into more manageable pieces or torn apart in the process. It actually gets kind of hair-raising because you put all this time and attention into an original, and then the idea is to, like, hack it up when youre making the mold, he says with a laugh and a shake of his head from his kitchen table in Harmony, Maine. Its kind of a nervous part of … Continue reading →

Nature.com Structural biology The tick-tock of circadian clocks Nature.com Circadian clocks are cellular timekeeping systems that synchronize biological activities with night and day. In cyanobacteria, timekeeping is coordinated by a post-translational clock that consists of KaiA, KaiB and KaiC, which can tick autonomously in ... Read more from the original source: Structural biology The tick-tock of circadian clocks - Nature.com … Continue reading →

Founded in 2004, Evolva is one of the first synthetic biology companies ever created, and it is a beautiful example of a successful business in our field. Evolva employs more than 175 people around the globe and since 2009 it has been listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: EVE). Evolvas CEO Neil Goldsmith kindly agreed to walk us through the companys history, goals, and philosophy in a very inspiring interview. A bit of history At the time in which Evolva was founded people were not speaking much about synthetic biology, at least using this terminology. As Goldsmith points out: We actually did not know that we were setting up a synthetic biology company because the term was not really in use. At the time we called what we did genetic chemistry. The concept was similar, but the Evolva team was putting it in a different way. When everybody started to use the term synthetic biology we did, too. Evolva was created around the idea of doing combinatorial genetics to make new biosynthetic pathways for the pharmaceutical industry. The company originated by the collaboration between three people: Neil Goldsmith, and co-founders Alexandra SantAna Sorensen, Sren V.S. Nielsen, as a spin-off … Continue reading →

Posted: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:07 pm Biology lecture at BGSU By Sentinel-Tribune Staff Sentinel-Tribune Dr. Scott Gilbert, professor of biology at Swarthmore College, will discuss his research about ecological developmental biology for the 2017 Jean Pasakarnis-Buchanan Lecture on campus Tuesday. Ecological developmental biology brings together aspects of embryology, medical physiology, ecology and evolution. Gilbert will present Eco-Evo-Devo: The Synthesis of Epigenetics, Medicine and Evolution at 7 p.m. in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theater (Room 206). Gilbert, who is the Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology, is known for his work in developmental genetics, embryology, and the history and critiques of biology. During his public presentation, he will discuss his research, which includes the origin of evolutionary novelties, history of biology and its social functions. The lecture is free and open to the public. Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please click the button below to manage your account. kAmv:=36CE H:== 2=D@ AC6D6?E w@H E96 %FCE=6 v@E xED $96==[ 2 D4:6?E:7:4 =64EFC6[ @? (65?6D52J 😕 ``a {:76 $4:6?46D qF:=5:?8] sFC:?8 E96 27E6C?@@? AC6D6?E2E:@?[ v:=36CE H:== 5:D4FDD 56G6=@A>6?E2= 6G:56?46 7@C EFCE=6D 42C2A246 7@C>2E:@? 5FC:?8 >@CA9@86?6D:D[ 2?DH6C:?8 2 =@?8DE2?5:?8 BF6DE:@? 23@FE E96 @C:8:? @7 EFCE=6D D96==D]k^Am kAmqv$&D 2??F2= … Continue reading →

Human beings are familiar with the idea of extreme events. Meteorologists keep us up to date on hurricanes, floods and high temperatures. Economists watch the stock market for signs of crashes or rallies. We spend a lot of time trying to better predict these events, yet are often surprised when they occur. But, says a new study in the journal Limnology & Oceanography Letters, when it comes to biology's extremes, it's not enough to just expect the unexpected. We need to be ready for the unprecedented as well. More than three decades of data on the physical, chemical and biological variables in 11 Midwestern lakes show that while lake temperatures and nutrient concentrations rise within relatively expected ranges, biological organisms achieve high population extremes. The findings challenge preconceptions about what a "normal" distribution of averages and extremes looks like. "There hasn't been much attention given to extreme fluctuations in biological time series," says lead author of the paper, Ryan Batt, who conducted the study as a graduate student at the UW-Madison's Center for Limnology. "We tend to think of these things that cause a huge distress on human populations, like natural disasters or financial collapses. I wanted to know how … Continue reading →