Synthetic biology on the cusp

Whither thou goest, synthetic biology? First, lets put aside the dystopian scenarios of nasty modified viruses escaping from the fermentor Junior has jury-rigged in his bedroom lab. Designing virulent microbes is well beyond the expertise and budgets of homegrown biocoders.

Moreover, its extremely difficult to improve on the lethality of nature, says Oliver Medvedik, a visiting assistant professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the assistant director of the Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering. The pathogens that already exist are more legitimate cause for worry.

On the other hand, its probably too much to expect kitchen counter fermenting vessels stocked with customized microorganisms exuding insulin, biodiesel, and cant-believe-it-tastes-like-butter spreadable lipids.

But I can see that kind of technology scaled up to the municipal level, says Medvedik. Large fermenter arrays could provide fuels, medicines, fiber anything carbon-based. Not every city can afford or would want a petroleum refinery to supply its fuel and chemical needs. Theyre expensive and dirty. But fermenting vessels are quiet, clean, versatile, and ultimately, cheaper.

Medvedik is more associated with DIYbio than such industrial-scale applications. But his work at Cooper Union and Genspace, a nonprofit organization he founded to teach molecular biology at the community level, transcends his immediate educational mission. Its going to take a lot of midwives to deliver the promises of synthetic biology; Medvedik is helping marshal the necessary cadre at the grassroots level.

That involves putting the technology directly in the hands of aspiring biohackers, of course. A current example:

Were working on a modular two plasmid system that is bridged by a phage trans-activating factor coupled to a phage promoter on the complementary plasmid, Medvedik says.

Oliver Medvedik

This system allows a student to mix and match different inputs and outputs, says Medvedik.

For example, in response to UV light the cells glow green, or, if you prefer, you can swap out the output and have the cells turn yellow and smell like a banana when exposed to UV light. Or maybe respond to caffeine and glow red. Basically, it functions like a genetic switchboard.

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Synthetic biology on the cusp