[Closes 6 Jan 2019] Post-doctoral researcher position in the Osbourn Group at John Innes Centre

Closing Date: 6 Jan 2019

>>> Apply here <<<

Grade SC6 Starting Salary: £31,250 - £35,400

Expected/Ideal Start Date: 01 Feb 2019

Duration: 17 Months

Main Purpose of the Job

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Scientist with expertise in natural product chemistry. The post involves extraction, analysis, purification and structural determination of medicinally important complex triterpene glycosides . The successful candidate will work with other researchers within the Osbourn lab as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

Further details of this project and the laboratory can be found at https://www.jic.ac.uk/scientists/anne-osbourn/.

Key Relationships

The successful applicant will be line-managed by Professor Anne Osbourn. The position is one of four postdoctoral positions funded by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Super Follow-on Fund award for translational research. The successful applicant will work closely with this team and with John Innes Centre Metabolite Services.

Main Activities & Responsibilities

• Extraction, analysis, purification and strutcural determination of complex triterpenes (saponins)

• Prepare results, reports and manuscripts for publication in leading scientific journals and other relevant media

• Disseminate research findings though presentations to various audiences at internal, national and international meetings

• Collaborate with colleagues within the Institute in the development of original and world-class research, including contributing to research proposals and grant applications

• Liaise with industry and other external stakeholders

• Ensure research and record keeping is carried out in accordance with good practice, Scientific Integrity and in compliance with local policies and any legal requirements

• Contribute to the smooth running of the group, including the effective use of resources, supervision of visitors to the laboratory and assisting with training others, encouraging scientific excellence

• Continually strive for excellence, seeking out and acting on feedback and relevant learning and development opportunities

As agreed with line manager, any other duties commensurate with the nature of the role

[Closes 15 Jan 2019] Postdoctoral researcher post in bioinformatics and computational protein design

Job number: ACAD103712

Division/School: School of Chemistry

Contract type: Open Ended

Working pattern: Full time

Salary: £33,199 - £42,036 per annum

Closing date for applications: 15-Jan-2019

>>> Apply here <<<

A 2-year, BBSRC/EPSRC-funded, postdoctoral position is available to develop bioinformatics and computational tools for protein analysis and design. The post is in the protein design laboratory of Prof Dek Woolfson (Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bristol; https://woolfsonlab.wordpress.com/).

The post has two aspects: The first project involves the development of computational tools (bioinformatics and virtual reality (VR)) to facilitate in silico protein design. This is in collaboration with Dr Dave Glowacki (Chemistry and Computer Science, Bristol). Protein designs will be tested experimentally in the Woolfson lab. The second project involves the construction of a database for collating and interrogating atomic structures of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). This is in collaboration with Prof Andy Wilson (Chemistry, Leeds). This work will underpin experimental studies across the POPPI consortium of academic and industrial researchers (https://poppi.website/).

The protein-design work builds on the Woolfson group’s expertise in computational and experimental protein design. See: Thomson et al. (2014) Science 346, 485-488, DOI:10.1126/science.1257452; and Wood et al. (2017) Bioinformatics 33, 3043–3050, DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btx352. The aim is to combine this with expertise in VR and machine learning in the Glowacki group to create accessible, user-friendly tools for protein design. See: O’Connor et al. (2018) Science Advances 4, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat2731.

The work on protein-protein interactions will contribute to an on-going computational and experimental effort to understand PPIs better. This understanding will be exploited in the design of peptide and small-molecule inhibitors of PPIs important to fundamental cellular processes and implicated in disease. See: Fletcher et al. (2018) Chem Sci 9, 7656-7665, DOI:10.1039/C8SC02643B. The aim is to generate a searchable database of PPIs of use to informaticians and experimentalists to interrogate and exploit PPIs.

The position is best suited to a talented and ambitious researcher with an interest in applying bioinformatics and computational biochemistry to protein science. Essential skills for this post include: an ability to program fluently in one or more computer languages, and ideally in Python; and experience with applications of bioinformatics, databases, or computer science in biochemistry or chemistry, and ideally in protein science. Desirable skills include: experience with computational protein design, databases for protein-structure analysis, molecular modelling in virtual reality environments, and in machine learning methods applied to protein science.

For informal enquiries, please contact: d.n.woolfson@bristol.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 15th January 2019.

We appreciate and value difference, seeking to attract, develop and retain a diverse mix of talented people that will contribute to the overall success of Bristol and help maintain our position as one of the world’s leading universities.

[Closes 14 Feb 2019] Four senior/lectureship posts available in Biological Sciences at Bristol University

Job number: ACAD103726

Division/School: School of Biological Sciences

Contract type: Open Ended

Working pattern: Full time

Salary: £43,267 - £51,630 per annum

Closing date for applications: 14-Feb-2019

>>> Apply here <<<

The School of Biological Sciences seeks four new academics at lecturer or senior lecturer level. Successful applicants will be research leaders with proven international track records commensurate with experience. They will drive influential research programmes that span the long-standing research strengths of the School: behavioural ecology and sensory biology, ecology and environmental change, evolutionary biology and plant and agricultural science.

Successful applicants will have strong interdisciplinary research portfolios and evidence of academic leadership along with strong commitment and aptitude for teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and roles across the spectrum of academic life.

A good fit to existing University Research Institutes and the Faculty of Life Sciences would also be an advantage.

For informal enquiries please contact Prof Claire Grierson (headofschool-biology@bristol.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is 11:59pm on Thursday 14th February 2019. It is anticipated that interviews will be held during week commencing 1st April 2019.

[Close 18 Jan 2019] Two postdoc positions on AI and SynBio in Edinburgh Genome Foundry

The Edinburgh Genome foundry are looking for two post-doctoral researchers to work with the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.

Research Associate in Mammalian Synthetic Biology

Closing Date: 18-Jan-2019

>>> Apply here <<<

Vacancy Ref: #046305

Contact Person: Dr Filippo Menolascina (Filippo.Menolascina@ed.ac.uk)

A 3 year, fixed term postdoctoral appointment is available within the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh to work on the automatic (re)design of synthetic promoters, primarily for mammalian cells, focusing on the control Chimeric Antigen Receptors expression.

As part of this project, the successful candidate will develop a microfluidics-based platform to perform high-throughput cell screening and will liaise with the Edinburgh Genome Foundry to build, and automatically model, large libraries of synthetic inducible promoters.

They will combine machine learning and computational optimisation to predict promoter strength, leakiness and automatically optimise promoter design to meet set specifications (e.g. maximise fold induction, minimise response time). They will also build a promoter to maximise sensitivity/specificity of transgene expression.

The ideal candidate should have a PhD with a background in Engineering or Computer Science and previous experience with techniques/protocols in Cell Biology and Microscopy. Experience with microfluidic device fabrication is desirable.

Research Associate in Microbial Synthetic Biology

Closing Date: 18-Jan-2019

>>> Apply here <<<

Vacancy Ref: #046306

Contact Person: Dr Filippo Menolascina (Filippo.Menolascina@ed.ac.uk)

A 2 year, fixed term postdoctoral appointment is available within the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh to work on the automatic engineering of synthetic microbial promoters.

As part of this project, the successful candidate will develop a microfluidics-based platform to perform high-throughput cell screening and will liaise with the Edinburgh Genome Foundry to build, and automatically model, large libraries of synthetic inducible promoters.

They will combine machine learning and computational optimisation to predict promoter strength, leakiness and automatically optimise promoter design to meet set specifications (e.g. maximise fold induction, minimise response time). They will also build a promoter to maximise sensitivity/specificity of transgene expression.

The ideal candidate should have a PhD with a background in Engineering or Computer Science and previous experience with techniques/protocols in Cell Biology and Microscopy. Experience with microfluidic device fabrication is desirable.

The Biomaker Challenge Winners and ways to get involved

The 2018 Summer Biomaker Challenge was wrapped up in October with a showcase event, but it not all over. Biomaker activities are still going strong! Below is a summary of activities as well as a write up of the Biomaker Fayre and the winning teams….

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Biomaker Activities

Winter Software Challenge (apply by 16 December 2018): Interested in programming? Low-cost hardware for science? Learning new skills with a team? We provide the hardware, you develop software nodes for integrating hardware with new graphical programming interface, XOD. More information at www.biomaker.org/apply-now - a quick, rolling application process so you can receive your kit and start playing ASAP!

Norwich Biomakers - An interdisciplinary network exploring the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics, software, art and much more. A place to learn about the latest technologies, share ideas and skills and shape projects. We meet up on a monthly basis.

Cambridge Synthetic Biology meetups - A clearing house for a wide variety of regular open meetings like Cafe Synthetique, Science Makers and the SRI Forums - with a particular focus on building tools and interdisciplinary research.

Cambridge Biomakespace - Scientists, engineers, students and entrepreneurs are developing the new Cambridge Biomakespace - an innovation space for building with biology in the historic MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology building.

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The Biomaker Fayre

On Saturday 29 October, over 100 attendees came together in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering to showcase and celebrate open-source technologies in research and education. The day consisted of a morning of talks followed by the Biomaker Fayre, where this year's ten Biomaker Challenge teams exhibited their projects alongside industry leaders and independent makers.

We started the day with some inspiring talks: Paolo Bombelli & Alasdair Davies on open tools for animal conservation and the "Powered by Plants" project, Grey Christoforo on hacking 3D printers to create better solar cells, Helene Steiner on OpenCell and teaching the next generation of designers to work with scientists, Richard Hayler on citizen science and education with Raspberry Pi and Julian Stirling on open instrumentation for Africa.

After a coffee break and lunch, we headed upstairs for the Biomaker Fayre. There was a festive feel to the space- gold balloons marked each exhibit, 3D-printed trophies were on display to be given out at the end of day, and attendees filled the space, excited to get involved and try out some hands-on demos.

Exhibits covered everything from a cartesian coordinate robot for dispensing fruit fly food to a wearable biosensor for monitoring vaginal discharge and a temperature-controlled container for sample transportation. Among the exhibitors were the ten Biomaker Challenge teams. In June, each team were given a £1000 grant and four months to turn their ideas for open source and DIY research tools into a reality.

The Biomaker Challenge judges were very impressed by each one of the projects and ended up deliberating for over an hour. In the end, the 3D-printed trophies (low-cost and DIY of course) were presented to the following teams:

Best Technology

Dual-View Imaging in a Custom-Built Light Sheet Microscope

Stephanie Hohn, Hannah Sleath, Rashid Khashiev, Francesco Boselli, Karen Lee

"The large variety of Biomaker projects was very inspiring. We had a lot of fun during the challenge and the feedback from people in different fields was really helpful. It was great to get in touch with programmers, engineers and designers. We received a great confidence boost for future more technical projects."

Stephanie Hohn (University of Cambridge)

Best Biology

Spectre, Low-cost whole-cell biosensors for environmental and medical surveillance.

Feng Geng, Boon Lim, Xiaoyu Chen, Jimmy Chen

"The Biomaker Challenge has provided us a great opportunity to extend our research into real-world application. As most of us come from a biological background, we faced a lot of difficulties on assembling the electronics and programming our Arduino kit. With three months of perseverance and constant guidance from our advisor Tony, we managed to come up with a customised, miniaturised spectrophotometer which can be used in conjunction with our whole-cell biosensor. We received an Arduino kit and sufficient funding to get us through the proof-of-concept stage of our project and from here, we are planning to further develop and optimise our device into a start-up company. It is amazing to think that it all starts with a small Biomaker Challenge Summer Project!"

Boon Lim, University of Oxford

Maker Spirit

Wearable biosensor for monitoring vaginal discharge

Tommaso Busolo, Giulia Tomasello, Michael Calabrese, James Che

"We all really enjoyed the multidisciplinary nature of the challenge, working with people from all sorts of backgrounds. We feel we now have a much clearer, hands-on insight into how the more diverse a collaboration is, the more relevant, impactful and exciting the results of ideas brainstorming can be!"

Michael Calabrese, University of Cambridge

Biomaker Challenge and Open Technology Workshop aimed to show the value of open, low-cost and DIY technologies as convening points for interactions between biologists and engineers. They are also important educational tools for those who are interested in developing technical skills and have great potential for improving the quality of science and increasing productivity in the lab for lower costs. With the proliferation of digital designs for 3D-printing and easily available consumer electronics like Arduino which has a huge community of users and lots of online help, designing your instrumentation around your experiment rather than vice versa has never been more possible.

Check out more photos from the day!

The descriptions of all prototypes are available at www.hackster.io/biomaker. To find out more about the most recent and upcoming competitions go to www.biomaker.org/biomaker-challenge to be kept up to date​​​​​​ with developments.

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Biomaker Challenge 2018 was funded by OpenPlant, a BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre Grant BB/L014130/1. The Biomaker Challenge and Open Technology Workshop were coordinated by University of Cambridge's Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative

Late night (biological) engineering in London

By Sami Stebbings

Once a month something amazing happens at the London Science Museum, and last month our collaborative team from OpenPlant, the SAW Trust, the University of East Anglia (UEA) and graphic recorder Rebecca Osborne, got to be part of it.

On the last Wednesday of every month, the London Science Museum opens its doors late into the evening to welcome adults to an engaging and free evening out, as part of the Science Museum Lates.

Each evening is themed around a different science topic, attracts around 4,000 guests per night and offers a relaxed atmosphere where you can walk around with a drink in hand whilst talking science.

This month’s theme was ‘The year of the engineer’ and we brought the synthetic biology edge to the night with our ‘Engineering Natural Products’ stand. With the help of Dr Richard Bowater (University of East Anglia), Hannah Griffiths (John Innes Centre) and of course DNA Dave, visitors were taken on a journey from the discovery of DNA through to how scientists engineer biological systems.

Our enthusiastic public engagement volunteers, Jenni Rant and Sami Stebbings (SAW Trust) and John Innes Centre PhD students' Hannah Griffiths and Shannon Woodhouse.

Our stand told the story of avenacin, a triterpene that is found in the roots of oat plants and helps make the plant resistant to fungal diseases. By understanding how these plants produce avenacin from the instruction in their DNA, we explored how scientists can engineer other biological systems to mimic their production. For example, can we transfer these genes from oat plants, into other crops, such as wheat which have no natural antifungal protection?

Guests had a plethora of activities to take part in, from our ‘Fishing for DNA’ activity, Avenacin Pathway puzzle, to getting up close and personal with an avenacin molecule using VR. They also had a chance to get hands on and infiltrate tobacco plants and see fluorescing oat seedlings!

With a steady stream of people throughout the night, the evening was a great success (not only because there was gin bar)! A massive thank you to all our collaborators who helped pull our stand and activities together, as well as the fantastically organised, London Science Museum team.

In was a great event to be part of and we hope to return to another Lates event sometime in the future!

OpenPlant Forum 2018: Engineering Plants for Bioproduction

Blog post by Dr Colette Matthewman

Over the past decade, synthetic biology has focussed much of its effort on microbial chassis as platform for bioproduction. The single cell simplicity and rapid life-cycles of these organisms, the prevalence of biological tools and the existing industry infrastructure for fermentation have made microbes a tempting playground for synthetic biologists wishing to make a range of chemicals and biomolecules, from flavours and fragrances to distributed manufacturing of highly complex metabolites for medicine, and an increasing number of companies are finding success in this arena (e.g. Ginkgo Bioworks, Amyris, Evolva, Antheia).

More recently, plants have been showing serious promise as viable production platforms for complex chemicals and biomolecules which in many cases simply can’t be made in single celled microbes. This year, the OpenPlant Forum explored some of the latest advances in plant bioproduction with inspiring talks from invited speakers and OpenPlant researchers highlighting a promising and exciting future for plant synthetic biology.

OpenPlant post-doc Ingo Appelhagen presents his work on anthocyanin pigment production in plant cell cultures.

The first morning of the Forum focused on tools for refactoring regulation and simple test platforms for plant synthetic biology. Prof. Ian Small (University of Western Australia) opened the meeting with a keynote on the potential for using engineered RNA bonding proteins to control organelle gene expression. OpenPlant PI, Prof. Paul Dupree described research in his on engineering of polysaccharide structures in plants. We also had the first examples of plant production platforms: Dr Ingo Appelhagen presented his recently published work on the production of colourful anthocyanin molecules in plant cell cultures, while Dr Eva Thuenemann introduced the HyperTrans system developed in the Lomonossoff lab at the John Innes Centre for the transient expression of proteins in Nicotiana benthamiana, a wild relative of tobacco. Eva is working on plant-based production of a protein that could be used in a vaccine against East Coast Fever, a devastating disease in cattle in Africa. The HyperTrans platform is used by the Lomonossoff lab and recently established company Leaf Expression Systems to produce therapeutic proteins and virus-like particles for vaccines, including recent work on a new vaccine for the eradication of Polio.

The afternoon session explored the cutting edge in production of complex plant-derived natural products in yeast, with a keynote from Prof. Christina Smolke (Stanford University), followed with an insight into the engineering of triterpene production in N. benthamiana by Dr James Reed in the Osbourn lab (John Innes Centre), recently reviewed in Plant Cell Reports. These projects rely heavily on chemical and enzymatic biodiversity in nature. Dr Sam Brockington (University of Cambridge) talked about harnessing the global network of botanic gardens for access to plant diversity for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, introducing a global database of living plant, seed and tissue collections called “Plant Search” – a perfect sedgeway into a panel discussion on Harnessing Global Biodiversity where Sam was joined by Dr Nicola Patron (Earlham Institute), Mr David Rejeski (Environmental Law Institute), and Dr Jenni Rant (SAW Trust). The discussions ranged from public opinion on synthetic biology (explored through the Global Garden workshop) and benefit sharing and dematerialisation, through to how blockchain (like the bitcoin) is being used in environmental contexts and whether blockchain technology trends can be applied to create/assign value for biodiversity.

Prof. Ralf Reski with his moss bioreactors

Day two of the Forum continued on a theme of “Tools for Metabolic Engineering” with Prof. Claudia Vickers (University of Queensland) opening by introducing the Future Science Platform in Synthetic Biology that she leads at CSIRO, as well as numerous tools developed in her research lab. Claudia was followed by a trio of OpenPlant postdocs describing analysis to unravel the genetics of divergent metabolic pathways in Brassicaceae (Dr Zhenhua Liu), a search for new synthetic biology tools based on diversity of natural triterpene oxidation (Dr Michael Stephenson) and tools for engineering Marchantia’s chloroplasts (Dr Eftychis Frangedakis).

Moving on from the tools, we explored further plant-based bioproduction platforms, starting with an inspirational keynote from Prof. Ralf Reski (University of Freiburg) on the moss Physcomitrella patens that Ralf’s lab has established as a production platform for biopharmaceuticals, leading to foundation of the company Greenovation, which produces moss-aGal (agalsidase) for the treatment of Fabry disease, a rare but painful and potentially deadly disease. Subsequently, we heard from Prof. Alison Smith (University of Cambrige) about “Designer algae” and work towards predictable metabolic engineering in microalgae, and from Dr Eugenio Butelli (John Innes Centre) about the Tomato as a biofactory for making health promoting flavonoids.

The Forum was wrapped up for this year with a session on Sharing and Techno-Social Platforms, with an introduction from OpenPlant’s Prof Jim Haseloff, followed by Dr Linda Kahl (BioBricks Foundation) on the latest with the Open Material Transfer Agreement (Open MTA) which has been developed in collaboration with OpenPlant to enable sharing of DNA parts (publication coming soon!). Next up, Dr Joanne Kamens from not-for-profit plasmid distribution company, Addgene, revealed the freshly launched plant resource page and spoke about the upcoming adoption of the Open MTA as an option under which plasmids can be shared. Finally, Dr Richard Sever from bioRxiv spoke about preprint opportunities for synthetic biology.

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Join us in Cambridge for the OpenPlant Forum 2019 | 29 – 31 July

Save the date!

[Closes 14 September 2018] Technologist in DNA packaging and delivery in Edinburgh

This position is within Prof Alistair Elfick lab, School of Engineering and UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology (www.synbio.ed.ac.uk) 

The Role:

An important underpinning technology for synthetic biology is the synthesis of DNA. Technology has now advanced to the point where it is possible to affordably construct very large constructs up to chromosome scale. An emergent bottleneck is the delivery of this into the cell. The Technologist will be actively involved in contributing to the standard development programme of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology (UK-CMSB), in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory. They will be primarily responsible for delivering technologies to achieve the packaging and non-viral delivery of large DNA constructs into mammalian cells, with their reduction to practise as standard protocols. Their secondary role is the support of collaboration with academic and research staff and students of the UK-CMSB. The post holder will ensure that the development of UK-CMSB technology standards supports and keeps pace with the research requirements, liaising with industry, collaborators and users, advising and training staff and students.

Fixed term for 2 years

Grade 7

Closing date Sept 14th 2018

Vacancy reference www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk  search for #044849

Contact Alistair.elfick@ed.ac.uk for further information

The Mad Hatter's Tea-party at Boomtown

Following last year’s success at BoomTown Fair, we returned, alongside the SAW Trust, with an Alice In Wonderland themed delight for the senses, with science, art and writing activities to excite young minds.

Table laid and ready for the first guests to arrive!

Now in its tenth year, BoomTown Fair attracts up to 60, 000 people and many of those came to visit us at Kidztown, with its impressive visual displays and interactive activities for families. 

Our stand entitled “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” revolved around workshops which had four stations for the children to rotate around. The tea parties began with the mad hatter revealing secret invisible ink messages to the children before the experiments could begin!

The children were tasked with many exciting science-based activities. Tasty treats the children could create included sweet, fizzy sherbet and rapid ice-cream made using an endothermic reaction and flavoured with plant flavourings (vanilla, coconut and strawberry). In addition to these, there were also many pigment-based activities inspired by all the bright colours in Wonderland, for the children to try. Including; natural plant pigment tissue tie-dyes and colour changing flowers and celery. The results of which decorated the tent throughout the weekend.

Carrying on with our use of plant products, the children also got to create their own fruit flavoured jelly balls, using alginate gelling agent, derived from algae, to go with a fizzy drink!

The final activity for the children was to write secret messages, which would be revealed by a new set of children, at the next tea party by the Mad Hatter.

Some of our tea-party guests about to make sweet treats.

As well as the tea parties, there were also numerous activities and challenges for the children to engage with while the table was re-set. These activities included using microscopes to explore the microscopic world Alice enters when she shrinks, writing nonsense poems, like those the Mad Hatter recites at his tea party and pinning the grin on the Cheshire cat.

We had a range of craft activities available, providing the children with something to take home with them from their time at BoomTown. The children could make Wonderland inspired flower faces, clock necklaces, a Mad Hatter’s Hat and playing card bowties.

Across the three days the children were able to immerse themselves in a Wonderland of science, art and writing, feeding their curiosity with a range of thrilling experiments and allowing their creativity to run wild with exciting craft projects.

A big thank you to the entire team who helped with the preparations and running of “The Mad Hatters Tea Party” and to BoomTown for having us once again!

By Shannon Woodhouse

An internship with the SynBio 4 Schools project

PhD student Camilla Stanton spent a three month internship, from May to August 2018, working with OpenPlant to build resources and materials for the Synthetic Biology for Schools (SynBio4Schools) project, funded through the OpenPlant Fund scheme. In this blog post she describes the project and the work that she completed during her placement.

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Synthetic biology brings together researchers from a broad range of backgrounds to solve biological problems through rational design. While synthetic biology is increasingly being taught in universities, it remains under-represented in the national curriculum and teaching resources for GCSE and A-Level students. The SynBio 4 Schools project aims to solve this problem by creating a comprehensive educational resource package that teaches the principles of plant synthetic biology through practicals and case studies.

SynBio4Schools activites and write-ups on display at the OpenPlant Forum, Norwich, 2018

I got involved with the SynBio 4 Schools project through a 3-month industrial placement as part of my PhD. My role was to assess and identify what resources could be included and to begin compiling them. An obvious starting place was to explore the activities and demonstrations that researchers in Norwich and Cambridge had already developed and tested. While these resources are valuable on their own, bringing them together creates a set of interlinked resources that support one another, greatly increasing their reach and impact. It is also an exciting opportunity to get contemporary research into schools, helping inspire the next generation of biological engineers!

During my placement, I worked in collaboration with researchers to discuss ideas for how their research could be used in a teaching-style activity, whether that be an experiment, worksheet or craft-based. We also had discussions about what sort of supporting material might be useful, such as articles, interviews or case studies. It was a really enjoyable process as it gave the scientists a unique opportunity to think more creatively about their work, and I got to hear some really innovative ideas for teaching some quite complex concepts.

Some of the 3D printed virus structures from Roger Castells-Graells' OpenPant Fund Project.

I ended up focussing on writing up three activities based on work carried out by Dr Paolo Bombelli (plant microbial fuel cells), Dr Nicola Patron (genetic circuits) and Roger Castells-Graells (virus structures), which I was lucky enough to showcase at the OpenPlant Forum. This gave me the chance to receive feedback from other researchers and educators about how the materials could be made more accessible for students and provide more support for teachers and technicians. These suggestions helped shape the basic write-up template, which now includes additional investigations, sources and links to other experiments. 

This was a hugely valuable experience for me - I got to explore new topics, meet people with exciting and original ideas and even got to try my hand at some design work! Although I’m now back doing my PhD, the SynBio 4 Schools project definitely doesn’t end there - we want as many people as possible to get involved.

Currently, there is a growing list of activities that cover a variety of topics from plant natural products to computational biology. But we want to showcase even more research from Norwich and Cambridge! If you have developed a resource that you would like to see included in the SynBio 4 Schools project, or you think your research could translate into an educational setting, please do get in touch! Email Colette.Matthewman@jic.ac.uk

MRes Biotechnology and Biodesign

University of Newcastle are offering a new MSc program in Biotechnology and Biodesign. The course provides a foundation into how design and engineering approaches are used in the creation of new biotechnological processes and products.

More information and to apply>>>

About this course

Advances in biotechnology, computing, and laboratory automation are being coupled with design thinking approaches to engineer biological systems that may produce more sustainable products than traditional manufacturing. Examples include:

• the production of synthetic meat substitutes
• dairy-free milk
• adaptive building materials
• petroleum-replacement products
• designer antimicrobial compounds
• smart drug delivery systems

Our Biotechnology and Biodesign MRes:

• provides a foundation in design thinking approaches
• covers recent developments in applied biotechnology
• provides an opportunity to develop and refine your laboratory skills
• provides the opportunity to develop your own research project

The training forms an excellent foundation for students opting to follow a research orientated career path and for those looking for successful careers in the biotechnology industry.

The course is interdisciplinary. You'll be suitable for this course if you are:

• a science graduate
• looking to develop your knowledge and research skills

You'll gain the skills allowing you to address critical global challenges in:

• sustainability
• food security
• the environment
• healthcare