Nuffield Council on Bioethics publishes Genome editing: an ethical review

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has today published the first findings of its programme of work looking at the recent and potential impact of recent advances in genome editing such as the CRISPR-Cas9 system across many areas of biological research.

The Council found evidence that, given its technical advantages and rates of uptake, genome editing is already having an almost unprecedented impact in research. The Council considered factors such as the extent to which the ethical questions raised by applications of the technology are novel, the likelihood of imminent advances in these areas and the possible effects of these advances in fields such as health care, food production, industry and public health.

Genome editing techniques are an essential tool for synthetic biology and while centred around more standard forms of single gene editing, the report acknowledges the field (sections 7.3-7.6) and the use of gene editing in food crops (5.1-5.17)

Synthetic Biology

"Synthetic biologists are self-consciously elaborating a novel field. They see the field as transforming biology as a practical discipline, not only in relation to the adoption of technical innovations, but also epistemically and institutionally (breaking down disciplinary barriers and reimagining biology as an engineering discipline), and socially and politically (e.g. the desire to build a community and to inculcate certain norms, including those of open source publication and responsible innovation practices). While, undoubtedly, genome editing has given a fillip to synthetic biology it does not, however, seem to have the same rhetorical significance here as in other areas of biology. This might be partly attributable to the fact that the natural reservoir of metaphor for synthetic biology is technical (engineering, construction) rather than textual (editing).

Synthetic biology does, however, offer an insight into possible ways of approaching genome editing as an innovation within research and industry that is essentially different to the translational approaches of biomedicine or, again, public health innovations. Owing, in part, to the different cultures that are integral to synthetic biology (e.g. that of computer science) and in part to lessons about innovation learned from the observation of other fields (e.g. nanotechnology), it has been common for synthetic biologists to adopt responsible innovation practices from the outset. These tend to see ethical reflection and social engagement as longitudinally integral to their practice (‘ethical by design’), as both guiding and governing research, rather than as challenges or decisions to be addressed at particular stages."

Plants

"Genome editing is currently used in research into plant breeding. Possible commercial uses include improvements in yield and pest resistance, increased drought tolerance, and increased nutritional benefit.

The impact of genome editing techniques is perhaps less revolutionary in plants than in humans, given the already long history of breeding strategies that have changed the genetic characteristics of virtually all crops – including selective breeding and first generation ‘genetically modified’ plants (mainly involving the insertion of genes that do not naturally occur in those plants).

However, genome editing could significantly speed up the progress of breeding programmes. It is thought that genome editing could reduce the time needed to generate the desired genetic characteristics in a plant population from 7-25 years to as few as 2-3 years since its target specificity effectively bypasses the need to go through a number of plant generations to achieve a particular genetic combination.

Depending on the regulatory and economic conditions, it could open up the field to smaller companies and, potentially, drive the development of characteristics other than the main commercially important traits like herbicide resistance."

Read the full report >>

7th October - SynBio for Schools: A multidisciplinary approach

Information and Ideas Meeting, Cambridge

Friday 7^th October, 16:30 – 18:30 Cambridge Makespace, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX

Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/yCI9Y9D0IAspB5yj1

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Synthetic biology applies design and engineering approaches to biology, and promises to contribute solutions to pressing global challenges. The success of this highly interdisciplinary field depends not only on skills as diverse as molecular biology, computer modelling, engineering, social sciences and design, but also an ability of individuals to build bridges across disciplines. The Synthetic Biology for Schools project aims to bring together a set of activities and resources to enable school groups and science clubs to explore the synthetic biology space. Read more about the project below.

I invite you to join the meeting at 4.30pm on 7th October at Cambridge Makespace. Maybe you already have educational activities and resources that can be shared and fit into this context (including, but not limited to molecular biology, engineering, standards and modularisation, circuitry, computer modelling, responsible research and innovation). Maybe you are interested in developing new synthetic biology learning resources, or maybe you are interested in new activities that you can use to engage school pupils or the public.

This meeting coincides with the Co-Lab Big Making Weekend run by the Open Science School so that people from this event can also attend. Please check out their event pages if you would like to get involved in some of the ongoing projects.

There will be a second meeting and 1-day hackathon in Norwich in November (date TBC) for those who wish to join. It will not be essential to attend both meetings.

Project Overview Synthetic biologists in Norwich and Cambridge and collaborators from the Open Science School, The SAW Trust, and Universidad Catolica (Chile) are working on several ideas for developing educational materials, tools and practicals to bring multidisciplinary science and synthetic biology into schools. Some of these resources are already in development. In addition, open hardware is being created that could be used by schools to support practicals in this area. While each of these resources are valuable on their own, by bringing them together there is an opportunity for increasing their reach and effectiveness, and therefore their overall impact. In this project we propose to i) identify relevant activities, resources and amterials and bring them together into a comprehensive set to explain the principles, tools and applications of synthetic biology; ii) develop video and infographic materials that provide a context for these resources; iii) bring together key stakeholders and facilitate discussions with potential end users, and; iv) identify routes for dissemination and create an action plan to maximise their use. The outcome will be a complete package of activities, supporting information and hardware that can be successfully used in schools to introduce synthetic biology with a focus on plants, and to provide learning opportunities across a wide range of disciplines. Our intention within the scope of this project is to target the resources for schools in the local area, but we are also looking at national and international opportunities for dissemination. Initially we are looking at targetting school groups and science clubs from GCSE level on, but we will keep an open mind about target groups as there may be opportunities to pitch the resources towards different groups such as undergraduates, DIY bio communities and the general public.

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This project is funded by an OpenPlant Fund mini-grant.

[Closes 7 October 2016] Postdoctoral position in synthetic biology at University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in the group of Professor Yolanda Schaerli, Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland to build synthetic gene regulatory networks in E. coli.

Postdoctoral position in synthetic biology

• Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne
• Starting date: March 1st 2017 or by arrangement

Qualification:

Candidates should hold a PhD in life sciences and have a strong background in synthetic and/or molecular biology. Experience with RNA circuits or computational modelling would be a plus.

Postdoctoral applicants should have one or more first-author publications in major peer-reviewed international journals. A good command of the English language, a high personal motivation to excel in science and a curious mind are required. 

Work description:

The Schaerli lab (www.yschaerli.com) carries out interdisciplinary research at the interface between synthetic, systems and evolutionary biology. We will move to the Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne in January 2017. We are looking for a motivated post-doc to join our team in Lausanne. 

The selected candidate will work on building synthetic gene regulatory networks in the chassis E. coli, using a combination of experimental and computational approaches. In the second phase of the project these networks will be subjected to laboratory evolution experiments to test evolutionary hypotheses. The postdoc will have the opportunity to lead research projects and work with motivated PhD and Master students. The qualified candidate will benefit from working in a very stimulating and international research environment in a young team with access to state of the art facilities.

How to apply:

Please send your full application including motivation letter, CV, list of publications and the names and addresses of three referees to: yolanda.schaerli at unil.ch.

Bio-start UK offers £200k of funding & support for your biotech startup - deadline 14th October 2016

SynbiCITE in partnership with Rainbow Seed Fund is running Bio-start, a competition to help promote the commercialisation the engineering of biology in the UK.

Bio-start is an annual competition designed to commercialise the engineering of biology and is currently seeking people and companies looking to solve significant global problems through synthetic biology.

The winner of Bio-start will receive up to £200K of equity free funding, labspace and access the London DNA Foundry. The competition provides entry into an accelerator programme with expert mentors and partners to support teams commercialise their ideas.

For further information on Bio-start please click here.

Scope of the competition

• Bio-start seeks applications that will enable the UK bioeconomy to grow and thrive
• Application areas can be in healthcare, agritech, clean tech, industrial biotech or any sector where engineering DNA is an essential component and makes use of synthetic biology
• Applications must not be service provision based
• Applicants do not need to be a company to enter, although to receive the prize the company must become solely incorporated in the UK
• A key screening criteria to enter the competition is IP status; you will need to show you can license the relevant IP and have support from your TTO or employer
• All first stage entrants should note the need to secure or demonstrate access to IP when applying

Synthetic Biology at Cambridge Science Festival gets a special mention at Cambridge BID Awards 2016

The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee was a roaring success at Cambridge Science Festival, scooping a prize at the Cambridge BID awards Awards 2016. OpenPlant's synthetic biology stand was highly rated by the public mystery shoppers and got a special mention in their final report!

OpenPlant offered a glimpse into synthetic biology at the Cambridge Science Festival and also showcased open technologies for science by demonstrated open source hardware developed with support from the OpenPlant Fund and SynBio Fund.

Making some weird and wonderful biological circuits

A disassembled phone explained the idea that by knowing how each of the individual simple components work (a dialling pad to input your desired number, a vibrating receiver coil to change the electrical signal into a sound wave) you can build more elaborate systems and by applying this idea to biology the public made weird and wonderful new lifeforms like a cat whose nose turns purple when a disease is nearby or a sprouts that taste of strawberries when it snows.

Cambridge Science Festival conducted some ‘Mystery Shopping’ as part of its evaluation strategy in 2016 and our home, The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee, was one of several weekend, hands-on spaces that were visited by evaluators. Our stand and team scored exceptionally highly with a 94.3% public approval rating!

The marquee was honoured at the 2016 CambridgeBID (Business Improvement District) Awards and Elisabeth Burmeister of the Sainsbury Laboratory collected the award on behalf of all the volunteers and sponsors who made the event a success.

Congratulations to all of the OpenPlant and SynBio SRI student and Faculty members involved!

University of Cambridge Department of Plant Sciences welcomes independent Fellows

The Department of Plant Sciences hosts significant synthetic biology research including OpenPlant and the SynBio SRI. It is currently welcoming independent research fellows who wish to apply to join the Department.

We welcome approaches to host candidates who are applying for independent Fellowships, such as Royal Society University Research Fellowships, BBSRC Sir David Phillips, NERC or EU Marie Curie awards. The Department has an excellent tradition for supporting Research Fellows in terms of providing financial support for laboratories and equipment, and PhD studentship opportunities, as well as promoting career development and collaborative expertise.

Potential candidates should contact the Head of Department, Professor Alison Smith (hod@plantsci.cam.ac.uk) or Department Administrator, Catherine Butler (cek31@cam.ac.uk) initially, after which they should approach Group Leaders from the Department (http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/research) who are most closely allied to their area of research interest. Applications will be co-ordinated by the Department Resources Committee. Contact should be made at least 6 months before any deadline for submission. We welcome applications from individuals who wish to be considered for part-time or other flexible working arrangements.

The Department of Plant Sciences sits within the School of Biological Sciences, with undergraduate teaching integrated through the Natural Sciences Tripos (NST). Postgraduate recruitment and training is offered either directly or indirectly via BBSRC or NERC Doctoral Training Programmes (http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/grads/). The Department maintains teaching and research specialisms across a wide range of plant science disciplines (from molecular and developmental biology, through cell-signalling, biochemistry and physiology to epidemiology, ecology and ecosystem modelling) with 18 academic staff leading active research groups, 4 independent research fellows (funded by the Royal Society, EC and NERC), 4 senior research associates, 55 post-doctoral researchers and 42 support staff. Research grant income in 2014/15 was £6M, with the Department currently administering a total of 68 grants with a combined value of £26.5M from a variety of sources, including research councils, Royal Society, charities, EU, industry and government agencies.

[Closes 1 Nov 2016] Job advert for Chair in Synthetic Biology at Concordia University, Montreal

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada are advertising a tenure track position of "Canada Research Chair Tier II in Synthetic Biology". Deadline for applications is 1 November 2016. The position is advertised in both Science and Nature:

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/jobs/590769-canada-research-chair-tier-ii-in-synthetic-biology

http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/423510/canada-research-chair-tier-ii-in-synthetic-biology/

Workshop, 8-10 Nov 2016: Taming Plant Viruses - Fundamental Biology to Bionanotechnology

Biochemistry society focused meeting - information taken from Biochemistry Society website

Taming Plant Viruses - Fundamental Biology to Bionanotechnology

8—10 November 2016

Atholl Palace Hotel, Pitlochry, UK

A Biochemical Society Focused Meeting

Recent advances in our understanding of virus biology have made it possible to integrate the activities of the wider plant virology community with the industry-focused work of bio-nanotechnologists.

This meeting will bring together scientists from academic and industry backgrounds, and at different career stages, wishing to apply plant viruses to plant, human and animal health challenges.

This meeting will provide opportunities to discuss concepts, share new perspectives and stimulate new collaborations, making this meeting an important step towards realizing the potential of plant virus-based nanotechnology.

ABSTRACT AND EARLY BIRD DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED.

Abstract deadline: Friday 23 September 2016

Abstract Submission is now open

Early bird registration deadline: Friday 23 September 2016

Registration is now open

Synthetic Biology at Cambridge Science Festival gets a special mention at Cambridge BID Awards 2016

The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee was a roaring success at Cambridge Science Festival, scooping a prize at the Cambridge BID awards Awards 2016. OpenPlant’s synthetic biology stand was highly rated by the public mystery shoppers and got a special mention in their final report!

 OpenPlant offered a glimpse into synthetic biology at the Cambridge Science Festival and also showcased open technologies for science by demonstrated open source hardware developed with support from the OpenPlant Fund and SynBio Fund.

MAKING SOME WEIRD AND WONDERFUL BIOLOGICAL CIRCUITS

A disassembled phone explained the idea that by knowing how each of the individual simple components work (a dialling pad to input your desired number, a vibrating receiver coil to change the electrical signal into a sound wave) you can build more elaborate systems and by applying this idea to biology the public made weird and wonderful new lifeforms like a cat whose nose turns purple when a disease is nearby or a sprouts that taste of strawberries when it snows.

Cambridge Science Festival conducted some ‘Mystery Shopping’ as part of its evaluation strategy in 2016 and our home, The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee, was one of several weekend, hands-on spaces that were visited by evaluators. Our stand and team scored exceptionally highly with a 94.3% public approval rating!

The marquee was honoured at the 2016 Cambridge BID (Business Improvement District) Awards and Elisabeth Burmeister of the Sainsbury Laboratory collected the award on behalf of all the volunteers and sponsors who made the event a success.

Congratulations to all of the OpenPlant and SynBio SRI student and Faculty members involved!

SETTING UP THE 3D PRINTER AND OPEN HARDWARE STAND AT CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Fuel Your Passion for Engineering Biology at SynBioBeta SF 2016 (Oct. 4th-6th) - Special offer on registration

SynBioBeta SF 2016 - Fuel Your Passion for Engineering Biology, Oct. 4th-6th, (San Francisco, CA) SynBioBeta SF 2016 is the prime conference for the synthetic biology industry – bringing the global community together to drive technology and business forward. This conference features a program full of talks from key thought-leaders, decision makers, and tech pioneers. Networking opportunities amongst key industry leaders provides an environment rich for expanding your company’s reach. Make critical connections ideal for business growth or launching your next product. If you are an active part of the synthetic biology industry and have a passion for making biology easier to engineer, then this is a must attend event. Highlighted topics for this year include the future of food, biosecurity, engineered cell therapies, DNA storage, public engagement, and more!

Open Plant Network Gets 20% Off Registration. Use Code OPNSAVE20Learn More & Register

The Power of Plants: OpenPlant visits Latitude Festival

A team of OpenPlant Scientists from the John Innes Centre, the University of Cambridge, and collaborators from Imperial College and University College London worked together to deliver an exciting range of activities for families visiting the Kids Area at Latitude Festival in July 2016. Latitude is a mixed arts festival that attracts over 10,000 visitors a year, who enjoy the rich mix of thought-provoking performances and interactive workshops. Our stand, entitled ‘The Power of Plants’, was an exhibit that led visitors on a journey looking at traditional uses of plants, how plant selective breeding has produced the food crops that we recognise today, tracking the evolution of our relationship with plants through science to introduce the synthetic biology approach, and some of the modern uses of plants and algae that bioengineering enables.

Activities included leaf printing to explore variation in the brassica family, a pairs game to match modern crop varieties to their ancient ancestors, pigment extraction and making bath bombs to explore traditional uses of plants and the chemicals they produce, infiltrating tobacco leaves (with water) to learn how scientists introduce new DNA into plants and to discover how vaccines can be made in plants. The second half of the display focussed on algae and visitors learnt about algae and it’s many uses (including the variety of algae-derived pigments used in food), seeing an algae printer in action (created by designer Marin Sawa), learning about bioreactors and measuring algal cell density using a mobile phone app (both bioreactor and app were developed as part of the OpenPlant Fund project: Big Algae Open Experiment), and learning about the difference between a lemon battery and electric currents produced by algae and plants. We exhibited both plants and algae that had been wired up so that the current could be measured with a volt meter.

We had a hugely positive response, both to the science exhibited and to the aesthetics of our stand which was covered in plants, algae bioreactors, science related graphics, and fronted by 5 beautiful giant willow flowers created by Mat Rant, and decorated by the OpenPlant team.

Our stand even smelt good, thanks to the 100s of lavender bath bombs that were being made. Though the smell at times became a little too much for our volunteers who had to step out of the tent for some fresh air and a coffee to counter the sleep-inducing effects of the lavender!

If you want to have a go yourself at pigment extraction and creating electricity from plants, Co-Lab and OpenPlant have teamed up to run a weekend workshop in September 2016 to bring together scientists, designers, and anyone else with an interest to develop new project ideas: http://openscienceschool.org/colabopenplant/

A Big Algae Open Experiment blog post can be found here.

Many thanks to all volunteers:
Colette Matthewman (OpenPlant, John Innes Centre, Norwich), Jenni Rant (The SAW Trust, Norwich), Alys Barr (OpenPlant, John Innes Centre, Norwich), Michael Stephenson (OpenPlant, John Innes Centre, Norwich), Dorota Jakubczyk (O’Connor Lab, John Innes Centre, Norwich), Matt Heaton (John Innes Centre, Norwich), Daisy Rant (Norwich), Paolo Bombelli (Big Algae Open Experiment, University of Cambridge), Brenda Parker (Big Algae Open Experiment, University College London), Marc Jones (Big Algae Open Experiment, John Innes Centre, Norwich), Marin Sawa (Algal printer, Imperial College London), Katrin Geisler (Smith Lab, University of Cambridge).

Blog post written by: Colette Matthewman
Photos by: Matt Heaton and Alys Barr

OpenPlant Forum 2016: Reprogramming Agriculture with SynBio

Many early efforts of synthetic biology have focussed on the engineering of microbes, especially for the growing biotech industry. In contrast to single cell microbes, multi-cellular organisms such as plants present a higher level complexity, take longer to engineer, and the regulatory system can be a tough and time consuming to navigate - but there are huge opportunities for delivering social, environmental and economic benefits through efforts to reprogramme plants and agriculture. They come with their own distinct set of ethical, legal, social and economic questions. The above were topics central to discussions at the 2016 OpenPlant Forum. Over one hundred people from various disciplines assembled to hear about some of the recent advances in crop and feedstock engineering, discover the latest tools to support innovation in this field, and to reflect on and discuss the ethical, legal, social, and economic questions.

Events kicked off at the John Innes Conference Centre, Norwich, with a networking evening and industry showcase, including two exciting new local developments: Martin Stocks (Plant BioScience Ltd) talked about Leaf Systems®, a translational facility being built to scale up protein and chemical production in plants; and Tony West gave a preview of the new DNA Foundry at the Earlham Institute, which has since been officially launched.

The first full day of the Forum opened with a double bill of keynotes from Allan Green (CSIRO) and Jonathan Napier (Rothamsted) talking about their impressive efforts engineering oilseed crops. It continued with a case study of AB Sugar's Wissington sugarbeet processing site, providing an inspiring processing model for maximising production from a feedstock and it's byproducts. This was followed by a cross-discipline exploration of some recent advances and future opportunities for reprogramming agriculture. In the final session of the day, Spencer Adler (Bioeconomy Capital) gave an investors perspective, followed by a lively debate on the ethical, legal, social and economic considerations of developments in this area. Discussions continued into the night at the conference dinner.

Day two grounded the discussions back in the technical, with a focus on tools to support synthetic biology, especially in plants. The day started with Tom Knight opening the curtains to an exhilarating view of Ginkgo Bioworks and some of their latest developments. Moving back to plant chassis, advances establishing the liverwort Marchantia as a simple plant chassis were showcased alongside work developing tools and methods for other plant chassis. The final session of the event focussed on tools to enable innovation through sharing of knowledge, data and materials - a key focus of the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre.

Steven Burgess and Cindy Chan have published a detailed write-up of the OpenPlant Forum on the PLOS Synbio Community blog: Seven Developments in SynBio: Science, Patents and Ethics | OpenPlant Forum 2016

Blog post written by Colette Matthewman Photos by Matt Heaton

Bio-Start launch competition for Bioengineering Start-ups - Registration Deadline, 14 Oct 2016

SynbiCITE and Rainbow Seed Fund have joined forces to establish Bio-Start, an annual competition designed to commercialise the engineering of biology. The first call for entries is now open.

Registration deadline: 14th October 2016

Deadline for completed entries: 31st December 2016

From the Bio-Start Website: Scope of the competition

• Bio-start seeks applications that will enable the UK bioeconomy to grow and thrive
• Application areas can be in healthcare, agritech, clean tech, industrial biotech or any sector where engineering DNA is an essential component and makes use of synthetic biology
• Applications must not be service provision based
• Applicants do not need to be a company to enter, although to receive the prize the company must become solely incorporated in the UK
• A key screening criteria to enter the competition is IP status; you will need to show you can license the relevant IP and have support from your TTO or employer
• All first stage entrants should note the need to secure or demonstrate access to IP when applying

More information can be found on the website: http://www.bio-start.uk

Funding Programme: 'Towards Modernisation of Biotechnology and Safety' - Deadline 6. Dec 2016

Please see below and at the link information on a funding opportunity being offered by the Dutch government for international (Dutch-led) research projects focussing on safety in Syn Bio. The programme is open for international partners too (up to 40%), on the condition that the main applicant is a Dutch partner.

Taken from the website:

"Biotechnology is a highly dynamic field of research, with new developments occurring at a rapid pace. New DNA base pairs, interdisciplinary collaboration, and targeted changes to the genetic make-up of humans, animals and plants are producing many opportunities for innovation. In this context, it is important that the safety of these future uses and applications of biotechnology remain assured. The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment has therefore commissioned the research programme ‘Towards Modernisation of Biotechnology and Safety’.

The main goal of the programme is to build scientific knowledge concerning the risks and uncertainties associated with state-of-the art and future modern biotechnology developments and applications, as well as to gain knowledge on ways to minimise and control those risks. As research on innovations does not automatically take into account the risks associated with them, the aim of this Programme is to stimulate the integration of risk research into current and future innovations in the field of modern biotechnology. The Programme will generate knowledge that can be used to further refine and develop the risk assessment and risk management system."

For more information, see the link: http://www.stw.nl/nl/content/biotechnology-and-safety

A matchmaking event is included in the process and will take place on 15 September.

OpenPlant Forum 2016: Reprogramming Agriculture with SynBio

Many early efforts of synthetic biology have focussed on the engineering of microbes, especially for the growing biotech industry. In contrast to single cell microbes, multi-cellular organisms such as plants present a higher level complexity, take longer to engineer, and the regulatory system can be a tough and time consuming to navigate – but there are huge opportunities for delivering social, environmental and economic benefits through efforts to reprogramme plants and agriculture. They come with their own distinct set of ethical, legal, social and economic questions. The above were topics central to discussions at the 2016 OpenPlant Forum. Over one hundred people from various disciplines assembled to hear about some of the recent advances in crop and feedstock engineering, discover the latest tools to support innovation in this field, and to reflect on and discuss the ethical, legal, social, and economic questions.

Events kicked off at the John Innes Conference Centre, Norwich, with a networking evening and industry showcase, including two exciting new local developments: Martin Stocks (Plant BioScience Ltd) talked about Leaf Systems®, a translational facility being built to scale up protein and chemical production in plants; and Tony West gave a preview of the new DNA Foundry at the Earlham Institute, which has since been officially launched.

The first full day of the Forum opened with a double bill of keynotes from Allan Green (CSIRO) and Jonathan Napier (Rothamsted) talking about their impressive efforts engineering oilseed crops. It continued with a case study of AB Sugar’s Wissington sugarbeet processing site, providing an inspiring processing model for maximising production from a feedstock and it’s byproducts. This was followed by a cross-discipline exploration of some recent advances and future opportunities for reprogramming agriculture. In the final session of the day, Spencer Adler (Bioeconomy Capital) gave an investors perspective, followed by a lively debate on the ethical, legal, social and economic considerations of developments in this area. Discussions continued into the night at the conference dinner.

Day two grounded the discussions back in the technical, with a focus on tools to support synthetic biology, especially in plants. The day started with Tom Knight opening the curtains to an exhilarating view of Ginkgo Bioworks and some of their latest developments. Moving back to plant chassis, advances establishing the liverwort Marchantia as a simple plant chassis were showcased alongside work developing tools and methods for other plant chassis. The final session of the event focussed on tools to enable innovation through sharing of knowledge, data and materials – a key focus of the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre.

Steven Burgess and Cindy Chan have published a detailed write-up of the OpenPlant Forum on the PLOS Synbio Community blog: Seven Developments in SynBio: Science, Patents and Ethics | OpenPlant Forum 2016

Cambridge-JIC iGEM Update: Using low-cost, well-documented, open-source hardware for synthetic biology

The OpenPlant-supported Cambridge-JIC iGEM Team are exploring open source synthetic biology tools for chloroplast engineering in algae. The following was authored by Cambridge JIC- iGEM team member Claire Restarick and is reposted with permission from the Cambridge Consultants blog. Since our initial blog post, we’ve spent many hours finalising designs for our genetic assemblies, which are now in the process of being synthesised. Once these are complete, we will begin the challenging task of completing four rounds of experiments before our deadline in September.

While our biologists are making significant headway in the lab, there have also been advancements on the hardware and engineering side. Our designs for low-cost, open-source lab equipment to support our Chlamydomonas transformation protocol have started to take shape – with the first stages of assembly taking place. This equipment will include a growth facility with light control, temperature regulation and imaging capabilities (linked to a dedicated Twitter account, @RPi_camigem2016), as well as a gene gun which, if successful, will transform cells by firing DNA-coated tungsten microparticles directly into them at high pressure.

The decision to make our hardware low cost and open source developed from recent trips to publicise our project at synthetic biology conferences in Paris and Norwich. At the Bio NightScience event hosted by the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires (CRI) at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industry, we presented our project to the conference and heard from many projects originating from Makespaces – collaborative community labs with little-to-no budget. We found its use of plant synthetic biology was hindered by the high cost of commercial equipment to culture and transform plant and algal cells. This inspired us to design low-cost equipment, which could make the area of plant synthetic biology more accessible to these creative workspaces, and other small research institutions.

The issue of documentation for open-source hardware for synthetic biology was raised repeatedly during the Open Plant Forum, hosted by the John Innes Centre in Norwich. A lack of clear, detailed protocols online makes it near impossible for the average novice builder to construct these devices. Having struggled ourselves to find appropriate parts and clear designs online, we have placed a focus on thoroughly documenting our designs, to make our open-source designs truly accessible for everyone.

To support both the hardware and biology aspects of the project, we have also continued our work on mathematical modelling, developing an open-source, integrated, kinetic model of Cas9-mediated gene insertion. We also held our first meeting with the director of the Cambridge-based Centre for Global Equality, to begin developing the human practices element of our project – understanding its impact and integrating this within the design and aims of the different parts.

Now past the halfway point of our project’s timeline, we feel well on track to meeting our project’s ambitious goals. Thanks to the continued support of our advisors at the Plant Sciences Department, and specialist advice from Cambridge Consultants, all aspects of our project are developing the potential to have an impact on both the scientific and non-scientific communities.

Note from Cambridge ConsultantsSynthetic biology has huge potential to solve many of today’s critical challenges in healthcare, agriculture, energy and the environment. That’s why Cambridge Consultants has decided to sponsor the Cambridge University team at iGEM 2016 – the international genetically engineered machine competition run by MIT. As part of our sponsorship, we are acting as mentors – giving the team access to more than 700 Cambridge Consultants engineers and scientists worldwide to help solve problems during this year’s project.

The iGEM team is also grateful for support from:

• OpenPlant
• University of Cambridge, School of Biological Sciences
• BBSRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Society for Experimental Biology

Deep Science Ventures programme open to PhD graduates

Interested in working in the world of biotech start-ups? A new programme called Deep Science Ventures works with PhD graduates to create high-tech startups from scratch even if you haven’t yet found the right idea or team. Deep Science Ventures is a fully funded, full time programme which works with scientists to make the transition from technical expert to founder of a high-tech start-up. They accept up to 60 PhDs, PostDocs and industry scientists onto a 6 month programme twice per year, help you to identify the match between your passions and real world opportunities and build a team of like minded people across a range of disciplines.

Applications are open now for the October cohort. Register your interest this week to joint the next round of applicants: http://deepscienceventures.com

Cambridge-JIC iGEM Update: Using low-cost, well-documented, open-source hardware for synthetic biology

The OpenPlant-supported Cambridge-JIC iGEM Team are exploring open source synthetic biology tools for chloroplast engineering in algae. The following was authored by Cambridge JIC- iGEM team member Claire Restarick and is reposted with permission from the Cambridge Consultants blog.

Since our initial blog post, we’ve spent many hours finalising designs for our genetic assemblies, which are now in the process of being synthesised. Once these are complete, we will begin the challenging task of completing four rounds of experiments before our deadline in September.

While our biologists are making significant headway in the lab, there have also been advancements on the hardware and engineering side. Our designs for low-cost, open-source lab equipment to support our Chlamydomonas transformation protocol have started to take shape – with the first stages of assembly taking place. This equipment will include a growth facility with light control, temperature regulation and imaging capabilities (linked to a dedicated Twitter account, @RPi_camigem2016), as well as a gene gun which, if successful, will transform cells by firing DNA-coated tungsten microparticles directly into them at high pressure.

The decision to make our hardware low cost and open source developed from recent trips to publicise our project at synthetic biology conferences in Paris and Norwich. At the Bio NightScience event hosted by the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires (CRI) at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industry, we presented our project to the conference and heard from many projects originating from Makespaces – collaborative community labs with little-to-no budget. We found its use of plant synthetic biology was hindered by the high cost of commercial equipment to culture and transform plant and algal cells. This inspired us to design low-cost equipment, which could make the area of plant synthetic biology more accessible to these creative workspaces, and other small research institutions.

The issue of documentation for open-source hardware for synthetic biology was raised repeatedly during the Open Plant Forum, hosted by the John Innes Centre in Norwich. A lack of clear, detailed protocols online makes it near impossible for the average novice builder to construct these devices. Having struggled ourselves to find appropriate parts and clear designs online, we have placed a focus on thoroughly documenting our designs, to make our open-source designs truly accessible for everyone.

To support both the hardware and biology aspects of the project, we have also continued our work on mathematical modelling, developing an open-source, integrated, kinetic model of Cas9-mediated gene insertion. We also held our first meeting with the director of the Cambridge-based Centre for Global Equality, to begin developing the human practices element of our project – understanding its impact and integrating this within the design and aims of the different parts.

Now past the halfway point of our project’s timeline, we feel well on track to meeting our project’s ambitious goals. Thanks to the continued support of our advisors at the Plant Sciences Department, and specialist advice from Cambridge Consultants, all aspects of our project are developing the potential to have an impact on both the scientific and non-scientific communities.

Note from Cambridge Consultants
Synthetic biology has huge potential to solve many of today’s critical challenges in healthcare, agriculture, energy and the environment. That’s why Cambridge Consultants has decided to sponsor the Cambridge University team at iGEM 2016 – the international genetically engineered machine competition run by MIT. As part of our sponsorship, we are acting as mentors – giving the team access to more than 700 Cambridge Consultants engineers and scientists worldwide to help solve problems during this year’s project.

The iGEM team is also grateful for support from:

• OpenPlant
• University of Cambridge, School of Biological Sciences
• BBSRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Society for Experimental Biology

OpenPlant Forum 2015: blog by Dr Colette Matthewman

A number of events took place in Cambridge as part of Cambridge Open Technology Week. At the heart of the activities was the OpenPlant Forum a two-day meeting bringing together experts from a range of sectors to discuss developing open technologies for plant synthetic biology.

What was remarkable about the Forum was the strikingly varied and multi-disciplinary agenda covering intellectual property, policy and regulation, responsible research and innovation and open science as well as an excellent scientific programme.

The first day of the Forum focussed on foundational technologies that facilitate exchange and freedom to operate in research environments. The second day concentrated on application of these technologies to trait engineering, and open source routes to innovation and industry.

In between talks, Dr Jenni Rant showcased outputs from Science Art Writing (SAW) Trust synthetic biology public engagement workshops, including a Marchantia themed game.

Kicking off events, Tom Knight, a computer engineer now widely considered the ‘father of synthetic biology’, talked about how synthetic biology aims to make an engineering discipline of biology. He commented that “biologists tend to like complexity, while engineers like it simple”.

Dr Nicola Patron described her recent efforts with OpenPlant and the international community, to bring together a common standard for the assembly of plant DNA parts. Many of the scientific talks described DNA parts collections for gene regulation or for producing high value chemicals in plants.

Professor Anne Osbourn highlighted the value of genetic and chemical diversity in plants, explaining for example that plant P450 enzymes can achieve things that test-tube chemistry can’t. Further examples were seen in talks by Dr Yang Zhang and Dr Stephanie Brown who are exploiting this plant natural diversity for production of heath promoting and anti-cancer compounds in tomato and yeast.

Openness was a running theme across the two days with social scientist Dr Jane Calvert emphasizing how open biology, open innovation and opening up are all critical to the future of synthetic biology. Professor Chas Bountra talked about his ground-breaking work in novel drug discovery, explaining that drug discovery is too expensive, risky and slow, and open science and pooling of resources can speed up research and share the risks. Dr Linda Kahl outlined the need for new legal tools to improve freedom to operate for researchers in both academia and industry, and her work to create an Open Material Transfer Agreement in collaboration with OpenPlant.

Next year the OpenPlant Forum comes to the Norwich Research Park, from 25 – 27 July 2016.

OpenPlant is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Source: OpenPlant Forum 2015: blog by Dr Colette Matthewman

Using ‘chemical origami’ to generate customisable, high-value chemicals from plants

The following article was originally published on the John Innes Centre news feed: Using ‘chemical origami’ to generate customisable, high-value chemicals from plants. Anne Osbourn is Co-Director of OpenPlant and this work from her group is highly relevant to the efforts of OpenPlant to create toolkits for plant metabolic engineering, but was funded from other sources.

Following the discovery of a new and very valuable enzyme which folds linear molecules into different shapes, scientists at the John Innes Centre are building a ‘triterpene machine’ which will enable them to custom-build valuable chemical compounds called triterpenes and produce them in large, cost-effective quantities. Working with the pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology industries, they hope to improve existing triterpenes to make better medicines with fewer side effects, or improve the specificity of pesticides. They also hope to make completely new, custom-designed triterpenes to any specification, which could lead to development of new anti-cancer drugs, agrochemicals, industrial chemicals or cosmetics.

In the ancient Japanese art of origami, different ways of folding a single sheet of paper can transform it into an aeroplane, a flower, or a bird. Plants perform origami too – not with paper, but with chemical compounds, taking individual precursor molecules and using enzymes to fold and modify them to create many different variations.

For several years, Professor Anne Osbourn of the John Innes Centre has been studying the ‘chemical origami’ that gives rise to a large group of plant compounds called triterpenes, many of which may have valuable uses in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology industries.

Professor Osbourn said:

“Some triterpenes are currently used in drinks as foaming agents, but there are many more exciting possibilities – new medical therapies such as anti-cancer drugs, diabetes medicines and antidepressants, for example; anti-fungal agents in crop protection, or cosmetic ingredients. All of the triterpenes we know about are based on a suite of similar molecular ‘scaffolds’ – we want to understand how these scaffolds are made, ‘folded’ and ‘decorated’ so that we might be able to engineer completely new triterpenes to make new medicines and industrial chemicals, or to improve those we already have.”

In a new research article published this week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Osbourn, along with colleagues at the John Innes Centre and collaborators from the USA, describes how she discovered an important part of the triterpene origami process, almost by accident.

By analysing oat plants that had been exposed to a DNA-mutating chemical, the researchers “stumbled across” a handful of mutated versions of an enzyme called SAD1. SAD1 is a triterpene synthase enzyme responsible for a critical step in building triterpenes: in its normal form, it takes a linear precursor molecule called 2,3-oxidosqualene (OS for short), and turns it into a pentacyclic scaffold – a molecule with 5 carbon rings. This is then further modified by other enzymes to produce hundreds of different triterpene compounds.

However, one of the mutated forms, which differed from the normal form by one little change in the enzyme’s structure, produced tetracyclic scaffolds with four carbon rings instead – the scaffold for a completely different set of triterpenes. Incidentally, the same mutation in an equivalent gene from a different plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, gave the same results, suggesting that this ‘molecular switch’ from pentacyclic to tetracyclic triterpene production is conserved between different plant species.

Next, the scientists tried putting the mutant SAD1 gene into yeast, a fast-growing, single-celled organism, to see if it could be used to make large quantities of triterpenes. Here, the team discovered that the SAD1 enzyme favoured dioxidosqualene (DOS) as a substrate rather than OS.

“This was an exciting discovery,” said Professor Osbourn, “because we realised that we could not only modify the enzyme to produce different triterpene scaffolds, but we could also modify the building block to make different more highly oxygenated scaffolds.”

The PNAS article presents just one part of ongoing work by the Osbourn lab to harness the power of genes and enzymes to generate high-value chemicals from plants.

Professor Osbourn said:

“Here at the Norwich Research Park we’re building a ‘Triterpene Machine’; a toolkit of molecular parts we can put into yeast, or a recently developed rapid expression system using tobacco leaves, which we hope will allow us to custom-build valuable triterpenes and produce them in large, cost-effective quantities. Working with the pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology industries, we hope we’ll be able to modify known triterpenes to improve their existing applications – to make better medicines with fewer side effects, or improve the specificity of pesticides, for example. We might even be able to make completely new, custom-designed triterpenes to any specification we want, which could provide us with new anti-cancer drugs, agrochemicals, industrial chemicals or cosmetics. The possibilities are potentially endless!”

This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the John Innes Foundation and a Norwich Research Park Studentship Award.

Photo by Frost Museum