[Closes 3rd May 2017] Grand Challenges Explorations - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting proposals for the latest round of Grand Challenges Explorations.

Grand Challenges Explorations fosters early-stage discovery research to expand the pipeline of ideas for solving our greatest global health and development challenges. Launched in 2008 with an initial $100 million commitment from the foundation, Grand Challenges Explorations grants have already been awarded to more than 1200 researchers in more than 65 countries.

Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies. Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million.

The Grand Challenges Exploration team are accepting applications on the following four topics until May 3, 2017:

• Health Systems Strengthening: Ensuring Effective Health Supply Chains;
• New Approaches for Improving Timeliness of Routine Immunizations in Low-Resource Settings;
• Wearables and Technology for Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Behavior Change;
• Innovations for Integrated Diagnostics Systems;

Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions in English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish will be available very soon. These two blogs may also prove useful: Innovation for an Interconnected Laboratory System and Improving Timeliness and Completeness of Routine Immunizations in Low-Resource Settings Will Save Lives.

For details and application instructions, please visit the Grand Challenges website.

The Grand Challenges Exploration Team look forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who may have a great idea, please forward this message.

(Closes 31st Mar) Deep Science Ventures - 6 Month funded venture building program

Where Scientists and Engineers come together to build ventures that matter.

Deep Science Ventures is doing something you may have never heard of... We are offering final year PhD students, graduates, and post-doctoral researchers to showcase their deep domain expertise and join building the next generation high tech solutions in biotech, healthcare, agriculture, sustainable energy - you name it.

We look for scientific and engineering expertise in combination with enormous passion to solve major challenges to join a 6-month fully funded venture building program. 

Brainstorm and explore technical and commercial viability of initial ideas with industry experts and potential co-founders, while earning basic wage.

If after 3 months you have found the right co-founder(s) and identified an exciting and viable project we invest £30,000 in to a new company and continue to support your growth over the next year. 

If you don't find the right idea you may re-do the programme, join other teams, join our industry partners or move back in to academia with far greater insight.  

Why

Because you want to do what you love, own it and have a real chance at making
an impact. There are far too many grand problems waiting for sustainable
solutions.

For Whom

Scientists, engineers, medics with deep domain expertise and obsession to
make an impact. You will also have interest in starting a company. No idea required.

What

A place where you'll find best possible ingredients to create a deep science
company:

• Founders: 30 talented candidates with deep domain expertise
• Funding: 3-month stipend + £30k investment each for 5-10 teams
• Facilities: Wet labs + prototyping space
• Process: Ongoing support from experienced venture partners and
dedicated specialist mentors
• Ownership: You own your IP

APPLICATIONS (5 MIN FORM) FOR JULY '17 ARE OPEN UNTIL MARCH 31

Join full time as a Founder or one-day per week as an Executive Fellow. Find out more about
how it works at deepscienceventures.com/join

Find out more about how it works here.

[Closes 3 April 2017] Postdoctoral Researcher - Plant Synthetic Biology

Opportunity for an outstanding post-doctoral scientist to work on a collaborative project between the Patron Group at the Earlham Institute (EI) and the O'Connor group at The John Innes Centre (JIC). The project aims to improve plant production chassis for heterologous bioproduction of proteins (including vaccines) and metabolites and to contribute to our understanding of how the rich endogenous metabolism of plants detoxifies foreign molecules. The post-holder will have access to facilities at the Earlham DNA Foundry, interact with stakeholders at LeafSystems® and have the opportunity to work and collaborate with scientists in the Cambridge-Norwich OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre.

For details see: http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/jobs/606787-postdoctoral-researcher or http://www.earlham.ac.uk/postdoctoral-researcher-plant-synthetic-biology-0

John Innes Centre announces EMBO practical course: "Multilevel Modelling of Morphogenesis"

"Multilevel Modelling of Morphogenesis" Venue: John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK Course Duration: 16 – 28 July 2017

Main Course Objective:

Understanding the multi-level nature and feedbacks involved in biological development requires an integrated, systems biology approach. This practical course will provide students with the theoretical background and the hands-on tools that are needed to enter this rapidly growing area of science. The methods and techniques taught in this practical course are essential for unravelling the complexities that come from interactions between different levels of biological organisation and the non linearity of the biological processes.

Target Audience:

This practical course is aimed at experimental biologists with an interest to understand and explore how the complexity of biological systems can be dealt with within a mathematical or computational framework, *and* at computationally and mathematically oriented students interested in learning leading-edge computational techniques that can be applied to gain insights in developmental biology.

How to Apply:

Please register online at https://www.conference-service.com/pc17-47/welcome.cgi stating your motivation for applying and brief research interests.

Applications will be limited to 24 students and successful applicants will be selected from the described motivation and research interests. Accommodation and full board will be provided.

*Application Deadline:* April 07, 2017.

For more information, please click here.

SynBioBeta London 2017 conference, Imperial College London, UK.

SynBioBeta London 2017, Imperial College London, UK

Connect with the Global Synthetic Biology Community. For the 5th year in a row, SynBioBeta London 2017 will bring together thought leaders and entrepreneurs from multiple facets of the synthetic biology industry.

Our focus is to unite attendees through thought-provoking talks, panels and networking opportunities, allowing the science and business sides of the industry to make critical connections.

With talks from key decision makers and tech pioneers, SynBioBeta is a must for those wanting to keep up with the rapidly-evolving industry. Networking opportunities are rich for those aiming to grow their company, their client list, meet investors or launch their next product. Many partnerships, connections, and new ventures have been started at SynBioBeta. 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.

SynBioBeta have offered a discount code to for the event, which entitles partipants to 20% off the cost of attending the conference. 

The discount code is: CambridgeMeetLON17

For more information, and to register using the discount code above, please click here.

16/17 March: Programmable biology for diagnostics - impacting global health and development

09:00-16:00, Mar 16/17, 2017, The Hauser Forum, 3 Charles Babbage Rd, Cambridge CB3 0GT

These day-long workshops will introduce challenges and opportunities in the field of cell-free diagnostics, with talks from the OpenDiagnostics team, expert in the latest advances of this technology Keith Pardee (University of Toronto, Canada) and plant disease expert Dr Richard Echodu (Gulu University, Uganda). This will be followed by an interactive sandpit session, and lab practicals the following day.

Harnessing recent advances in synthetic biology, cell-free paper-based diagnostics offer a platform for low cost, easy-to-use, in-field testing systems for a wide range of possible specificities. Synthetic gene networks can be designed to generate quantifiable outputs, such as chromoproteins that lead to visual color changes, in the presence of specific input signals like heavy metal ions or viral RNA sequences. These DNA circuits can be freeze-dried onto paper, along with the cellular machinery used for gene transcription and translation. When rehydrated, a simple visible readout can be produced and little or no laboratory experience or infrastructure is required. Critically, the low cost of these strips (~0.1$/test) will enable access across low and middle income countries.

OpenDiagnostics is an interdisciplinary team of early career researchers with three aims: to prototype solutions to technical challenges in cell-free diagnostics, to investigate potential applications, and to connect scientific experts with stakeholders.

OpenDiagnostics Seminar

This morning workshop will introduce the challenges and opportunities uncovered by the team, with additional talks from the originator of the latest advances in the technology Keith Pardee (University of Toronto, Canada) and plant disease expert Dr Richard Echodu (Gulu University, Uganda).

OpenDiagnostics Sandpit

Get involved in tackling global health challenges using programmable biology! If you would be interested to help generate ideas and collaborate with OpenDiagnostics, you’re invited to join this interactive sandpit event. Interdisciplinary teams will tackle a range of technical challenges identified by OpenDiagnostics requiring expertise from across the natural sciences, engineering and computer science through to manufacturing, law and social sciences. Solutions may be put forward as funding proposals for the OpenPlant Fund call in July 2017, which offers £5k grants to interdisciplinary projects in synthetic biology.

Lab practicals (17th Mar)

Get hands on with designing logic circuits using DNA and programming cell extracts to produce colours or other reporters in response to a signal. Physicists, engineers, computer scientists and other non-biologists are particularly welcome to attend and explore new technologies that bring engineering thinking into biology. No prior experience required.

Tickets are free, however spaces are limited. To register, please click here.

Timetable

16th March 2017 Seminar and Sandpit sessions

9.00-9.20 Registration

9.20-10.40 About OpenDiagnostics

• Introduction to OpenDiagnostics

• Insights from field trips to Kenya and South Africa

10.40-11.00 Refreshments

11.00-12.00 Expert talks

• Richard Echodu on challenges and opportunities for crop disease diagnostics in Africa

• Keith Pardee on cell-free synthetic diagnostics and portable, on-demand biomanufacturing

12.00-13.00 Lunch

13.00-14.45 Focus Groups

14.45-15.00 Refreshments

15.00-15.30 Presentation of OpenPlant Fund proposal ideas

15.30-16.00 Wrapping up and networking

17th March 2017 - Practicals

09:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00, Department of Veterinary Science

There will be a day long practical session taking place at the University of Cambridge department of Veterinary Medicine on the 17th of March. Details for the venue to come. 

Additional events

In addition to this event, there will also be an event titled: 'Programmable cell extracts - a new biomanufacturing paradigm' taking place at 18:30-9:00 on the 16th March at the Old Divinity School, St Johns College. The talk and dialogue will be followed by a wine reception and delicious finger buffet. 

This event is bookable through e-sales on the university website (registration £5). Please click here for more information.

Tickets and Booking

Please note that if you wish to attend several of the available sessions, you can order tickets for multiple events through the registration option. However, if you wish to attend the sandpit session on the 16th March, you need to attend the seminar session first.

Tickets are free, however spaces are limited. To register, please click here.

More information about this event…

16 March: Programmable Cell Extracts - A New Biomanufacturing Paradigm

Mar 16, 2017, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM, Old Divinity School, St Johns College.

Dr. Keith Pardee (University of Toronto) and Dr. Richard Kelwick (Imperial College) discuss how use of cell extracts could revolutionise the field of biomanufacturing. The talk and dialogue will be followed by a wine reception and delicious finger buffet.

Bioengineering to produce complex control circuits like diagnostic tests, or to modify metabolic pathways for production of everything from drug and vaccines to flavours and fragrances, has typically taken place in cells that are then grown in large, industrial bioreactors. New methods, using cell extracts that can be programmed quickly and flexibly using DNA, promise a paradigm shift in biomanufacturing and paves the way to novel modes of computational biodesign, rapid prototyping and bioproduction. The opportunity to freeze-dry and ship these biofactories opens up many exciting possibilities for small scale distributed manufacturing, for example just-in-time vaccine production, and has profound implications for emerging bioeconomies.

The Synthetic Biology SRI welcomes two researchers to discuss this new area of synthetic biology and its possible futures.

Dr. Keith Pardee (University of Toronto) works at the interface of synthetic biology and human health. His research focuses on the potential of moving synthetic biology outside of the cell and dry shipment of programmable biofactories to enable diagnostics and just in time production of vaccines and biologics.

Dr. Richard Kelwick (Imperial College) researches cell-free systems and biopolymer production, including establishing cell-free methods and toolkits for new bacterial strains, most recently Bacillus subtilis. He also works on bioreporters and biosensors using synthetic gene circuits.

The talk and dialogue will be followed by a wine reception and delicious finger buffet.

For more information, and to register for the seminar (£5), please book here.

This event is organised by the Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative as part of our Lent Term 2017 SynBio Forum. For more events please visit http://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/events/forum

Additional event

This event is being run in conjunction with a free day seminar and workshop session taking place on 16th March 2017, entitled: ‘Programmable biology for diagnostics impacting global health and development’, details of which can be found here.

More information about this event…

EUSynBioS announces 2017 dates for their annual Symposium 2017 (Aug 31 - Sep 1)

The European Association of Synthetic Biology Students and Postdocs (EUSynBioS) are excited to announce dates for their annual symposium on Synthetic Biology held Aug 31 - Sep 1 2017 in Madrid.

The Symposium features exciting speakers and interactive sessions to foster greater collaboration and engagement within the European Synthetic Biology community. EUSynBioS is at heart a student and post-doc association and havereserved a majority of speaking time for PhD students and early career post-docs to present their research to peers and leading academics and industry representatives. 

The European Association of Students and Post-docs in Synthetic Biology (EUSynBioS) was founded as a student-led initiative in late 2014. Their goal is to shape and foster a community of young researchers active the young scientific discipline of synthetic biology within Europe by means of providing an integrative central resource for interaction and professional development.

For more information, please click here.

Cambridge Synthetic Biology Meetup group reaches 500 members

Cambridge Synthetic Biology Meetup is a group for people interested in Synthetic Biology and open technologies: the DNA-based reprogramming and computational modelling of living systems and low-cost hardware for biological instrumentation.

It is supported by the Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative but also advertises events organised by OpenPlant, various departments and the Biomakespace. Since starting back in 2014, membership has steadily grown and the group has just welcomed it's 500th member, E.J. McCarthy, a 1st Year PhD student in the Department of Engineering.

E.J. told us a little bit about why he joined the group. If you're interested in similar opportunities then please join us!

"I joined up because synthetic biology allows for extensive interdisciplinary collaboration and holds the potential to significantly impact the general populace over the next 15-20 years in a positive way. My hope is to play a role in fulfilling this promise and interact with individuals who feel the same way. "

Upcoming Meetups include:

Monday 20 Feb, 6pm. Cafe Synthetique: Biology as Technology

A fascinating story of human efforts to gain control of evolution and produce plant traits to order using X-rays, nuclear technologies and other industrial processes. Are we edging closer to evolution to order using genetic toold like CRISPR? Find out with Dr Helen Anne Curry (History and Philosophy of Science) and Dr Alison Bentley (NIAB).

Every Thursday, 7pm. Build a Biomakespace

Volunteer with an enthusiastic and interdisciplinary group to create a community laboratory for engineering with biology in Cambridge, based in the heart of the Biomedical Campus.

Saturday 11 Mar, 12pm, Science Makers: data wrangling

This monthly meetup at Cambridge Makespace usually builds lab and scientific equipment but this month we're focusing on the data - how do you deal with data from sensors or sensor networks and use it to make things happen? A great intro ahead of our Internet of Science Things meeting in April.

Registration opens for OpenPlant Forum in Cambridge, 24-26 July 2017

OpenPlant Forum is an annual open meeting for plant synthetic biology organised by the OpenPlant partners: University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre and the Earlham Institute. Attendees from other organisations are welcome.

In 2017 the theme is fast and frugal engineering with biology. Join us to explore new ways of exploiting genetic tools, automation, open international exchange, DIY/maker approaches and more to develop globally accessible synthetic biology research and teaching resources. We will showcase the latest developments in plant synthetic biology from within OpenPlant and beyond, alongside outcomes from OpenPlant Fund, our seed funding scheme which has already supported almost 40 interdisciplinary projects led by early career researchers.

Registration is free to all but places are limited, please sign up early to ensure your space.

You can find more information on the Forum via the OpenPlant website.

OpenPlant PI Professor Alison Smith talks algae and The Life Scientific on Radio 4

OpenPlant PI Professor Alison Smith featured on BBC Radio 4's 'The Life Scientific' on Tuesday 31 January, discussing her love of biochemistry with Jim al-Khalili. Her interest led to a passion for algae and their extraordinary and sometimes bizarre molecular diversity. Their abundant complex metabolites and natural products, combined with their ease of growth in large volumes, make algae a key target for biotechnology and synthetic biology. Alison has worked extensively on the topic of algal biofuels and more recently, algal acquisition of vitamins from co-cultured bacteria, which could be used in food supplement development. Algal farms are beginning to emerge as sustainable biofactories for more and more compounds that we rely on in our daily lives.

Alison's lab will soon host an OpenPlant postdoctoral researcher examining genetic regulation through riboswitches and members of her lab are already contributing to a growing collection of MoClo DNA parts for the alga Chlamydomonas rheinhardtii.

Algae featured image credit: CSIRO on Wikimedia, licensed under CC-BY 3.0

Open research training for PhD students in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (14 Feb - 7 Mar 2017)

The Office of Scholarly Communication is offering a series of courses in open research training for PhD and graduate students at the University of Cambridge.

The courses will provide an extremely useful foundation of knowledge for a career in research. The courses offered will go into depth regarding issues such as open research, keeping digital information safe, and publishing and communicating your research effectively. They will be running between 14 February - 7 March 2017 and are free for all graduate students, but are pitched at a level most relevant for PhD students. Spaces need to be booked in advance.

The courses can be viewed below: 

Everything you need to know about Open Research: for researchers and graduate students

(Tue 14 Feb 2017) 10:00 - 11:00

Pre-Publication considerations: Publishing your Research Effectively

(Tue 21 Feb 2017) 10:00 - 11:00

Research Data Management Workshop (for PhD students in the Graduate School of Life Sciences)

(Mon 27 Feb 2017) 14:00 - 17:00

Post-Publication sharing: Publishing your Research Effectively

(Tue 28 Feb 2017) 10:00 - 11:00

Research Data Management Workshop

(Tue 7 Mar 2017) 09:30 - 12:30

For more information or for other courses from the Office of Scholarly Communication, please click here.

Image credit: Leo Hidalgo via Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Call for volunteers - 'Synthetic Biology and the Senses' at Cambridge Science Festival 2017

The Plant and Life Science Marquee at the coming Science Festival will be running 10:00-16:00 on Sat 18 Mar 2017. There will be a 'Synthetic Biology and the Senses' joint exhibit by OpenPlant and the SynBio SRI. We will be including exhibits on synthetic biology and the senses, with interactive puzzle games and activities for children, as well as posters of various projects going on in Cambridge relating to synthetic biology. 

We are looking for volunteers to help with the exhibit and presentation of the stall. We require volunteers for various times of the day and would be very happy to have 4 people at the exhibit at all times. One hour slots are available and volunteers can stay as long as desired. 

Open Innovation with Large Bioresources: a workshop report

OpenPlantand The Synthetic Biology SRI, Public Policy SRI and Faculty of Law co-organised a workshop held on 28 January 2016 on the openness of large bioresources in synthetic biology and genomics. The resulting report by Dr John Liddicoat and Dr Kathy Liddell has now been published on SSRN.

Research in synthetic biology and genomics depends on the use of collections of tissue and data, commonly known as bioresources. Substantial amounts of time and money are being spent on creating these bioresources and it is likely that significant scientific breakthroughs and development of end-products may be missed or delayed if the tissue and data in these resources are not shared. Accordingly, the ‘openness’ of these bioresources — in other words, the ability for other researchers to access, use, and share these resources (which is typically recorded in a bioresource’s IP and access policy) — is a key issue for the success of bioresource initiatives and the progress of synthetic biology and genomics.

There are, however, many different approaches to openness, and the development and dissemination of new knowledge are not necessarily advanced by distributing material at low cost or without any restrictions; time-limited rights of control (e.g. IP rights) may provide a useful incentive. It is a significant challenge to develop a fit-for-purpose openness policy that balances the advantages (and disadvantages) of different approaches to openness. The Workshop addressed this challenge by: reviewing openness policies adopted by large bioresources; eliciting ideas about access and intellectual property; debating the applicability of different openness policies; and identifying relevant areas for future research.

The report can be accessed here, and thanks and acknowledgments go to the Welcome ISSF and OpenPlant Fund. Both the Synthetic Biology SRI and OpenPlant were involved with co-organisation of funding along with Public Policy SRI and LML.

For more information please click here.

Image credit: Holly Gramazio via Flickr, licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

 via Flickr, licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Co-Lab OpenPlant: an interdisciplinary science design workshop

The 5th edition of Co-Lab workshop was hosted in Cambridge, including Makespace Cambridge and Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. This workshop received a grant from the OpenPlant Fund, with the aim to spur discussion of plant synthetic biology from an ethnographic point of view. The facilitator, Open Science School, is an non-profit based in Paris interested in exploration of open source technology in the fields of education, design and beyond.

This is a guest post by Lena Asai from Open Science School. Follow her @LenaAsai!

Image credits: Imane Baïz

The workshop consisted of 3 ideation workshops and a ‘Big Making Days’ prototyping workshop with activities that bridges together artists, scientists and designers to brainstorm and work on an interdisciplinary project around synthetic biology and life engineering. The programme includes pigment extraction, making electricity with plants (hosted by Paolo Bombelli), Ethnography activity, and series of participatory lectures.

The Big Making Days at Makespace on 7 - 9 October were a great opportunity for the participants to indulge in a full weekend of making at the Makespace. The three projects funded by the workshop were:

Project 1: VRICKS (Virus Bricks for Citizens)  #virus #3Dmodel #SyntheticBiology #LearningByDoing #DesignToShare

VRICKS is a citizen science based project that aims to connect students and general public with science. Virology is the basic scientific direction of the project. Researchers go to a classroom or science event, they pitch the project and the participants play, design and assemble viral structures using the VRICKS box. Participants upload pictures of the assembled structures in Twitter/Instagram. Researchers pick their favourite structure once a week and comment on it in the blog of the project. Additionally, researchers get inspired by the proposed structures and might even add new VRICKS to the collection. In the end, we have a citizen science project, which combines education, creative thinking and advanced research technologies.

Pictured in the middle, is a prototype constructed by the VRICKs team, created using the laser cutter. The project was presented at the Science Festival in Norwich along with Roger’s PhD project on viral structures (pictured in the left). Photo Credit: Roger Castells

Project 2: TEB (The Edible Books)
#Food #Books #Edible #Supplements #Education

The edible book aims to present the traditional hardback book in a new light. The edible rice paper will add an additional layer of sensory experience to reading the book, whether for educational purposes aimed at young children, or for novelty purposes aimed at opening the minds of gift-givers, and even as an innovative medium for communicating food science principles, inside and outside the kitchen.

Project 3: SMELL YOU LATER

#Perception #Smell #diyEEG #SmellDirectory #EmotionAndScent

Image Credit: Lena Asai

Having the aim to investigate at the relationship of emotion and smells, this team utilised EEG scans to connect to sense of smell and person’s psyche. They sought to developing a framework, based on EEG and questionnaires, to elucidate these factors and to assemble a dictionary of smells, the reactions to which are most uniform and repeatable. Such a dictionary could have applications ranging from storytelling via an olfactory sequence of smell “snapshots” to mood control.

The participants took full advantage of the facility at of Makespace, especially during the Big Making Days. It was a fantastic experience for the workshop, as Makespace Cambridge is such a wonderful space and the participants were very thankful for this opportunity. We were able to host over 20 participants to work on the ideas developed during the Brainstorming Weekends. We would like to thank Directors of the Makespace, Jenny, Carlos and all Makespace members for providing us with such an amazing experience.

Image Credit: Paloma Portela

This workshop was supported by a grant received by OpenPlant, which allowed materials for participants to be fully funded. The workshop is part of EU project No. 709443.

Doing It Together Science (DITOs), an EU citizen science project:

DITOs will implement many innovative participatory event formats across Europe focusing on the active involvement of citizens in two critical areas: the cutting edge topic of biodesign and the pressing area of environmental monitoring. The project will advance the EU Responsible Research and Innovation agenda by moving beyond more traditional approaches into direct engagement that builds upon DIY, grassroots, and frugal innovation initiatives so that in the short and medium term we sustain localised capacity building and in the long term the effects of these grassroots efforts channel into policy action at different levels.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 709443.

Photo Album!

Understanding the Nagoya Protocol; your role in protecting the World’s Biodiversity

Guest blog by PhD student Hannah Griffiths (John Innes Centre)

Have you heard of the Nagoya Protocol? Do you understand how and when Nagoya may affect your research? And most importantly do you know why Nagoya exists?

Let me put that another way...

Does your research involve working on any sort of biological material? Do you know where the material originated from? And do you have evidence that you are allowed to use it in your research?

Not sure? Then read on...

The Nagoya Protocol is a new international Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) legislation, created to ensure that genetic resources are sourced and utilised fairly for providers and users.

Many people are not yet aware of Nagoya and, amongst those who are, there remains confusion regarding how and when it might be relevant to their research. In fact many non-commercial researchers assume that academic research will be exempt from this type of ABS legislation (which is not the case).

Nagoya is sometimes regarded warily as understanding whether your research falls in scope of Nagoya, and how to comply if it does, can be a daunting and time-consuming task. However, after attending the first regional workshop on Nagoya in the UK, myself and representatives from a variety of industries left understanding that fair ABS should be an integral part of research and that the Nagoya Protocol sets out bold plans to achieve this whilst simultaneously protecting biodiversity. The link between biodiversity and ABS may not be obvious, however it could be a crucial tool to protect biodiversity at a local level.

The Nagoya Protocol and protecting biodiversity

“…how easy it is to lose our connection with the natural world. Yet it is on this connection that the future of both humanity and the natural world will depend”

- David Attenborough (2016)

The presence of biodiversity in ecosystems, individuals and everything in between is critical for current and future life on earth. Natural and agricultural systems are more resilient to change when more biodiverse, and the unfathomable diversity of genetic elements in nature will be an essential resource for synthetic biology to innovate solutions to the World’s challenges. Yet, biodiversity has long suffered with intensive human population growth and urbanisation.

The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity is a United Nations international treaty to address this and protect biodiversity. The Nagoya Protocol is a legal framework which entered into force over 20 years later, in 2014, to achieve the third and final objective of the convention;

“The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources”.

 - Convention on Biological Diversity (1992)

The Nagoya Protocol describes how countries can exercise sovereign rights over genetic resources to ensure that providers of resources (or associated knowledge) receive a share of any benefit arising from their utilisation.

For the providers, the benefits received and their involvement in negotiating access demonstrates the high-value of their resources, which acts as a direct incentive to locally preserve such resources and consequently biodiversity.

Simultaneously, countries that become party to Nagoya agree to allow the utilisation of genetic resources under reasonable terms, which should ensure that the world’s genetic resources are actually available and accessible for research.

ABS schematic https://www. cbd.int/abs/infokit/powerpoint/revised/brochure-en.pdf

The first regional Nagoya workshop (John Innes Centre, November 2016)

The UK became a party to the Nagoya protocol on the 22nd May 2016, the international day of biodiversity. Regulatory Delivery, the UK organisation that will be enforcing Nagoya, are currently raising awareness and understanding in relevant industries with activities such as this cross-sector workshop.

The workshop was very informative, with the Nagoya Protocol being thoroughly explained from the very basics to how to find answers to seemingly unanswerable questions, such as how to use the online chat feature on the Access and Benefit Sharing Clearing House (ABSCH).

The clarity of information helped remedy some common misconceptions. For instance, some people did not understand the incentive for the UK and EU to become party to Nagoya, as the association with biodiversity and ethics of fair sharing are not always immediately clear.

Further, there was a false impression that all benefits must be monetary, when in fact there is great flexibility and benefits are encouraged to be non-monetary, such as training and technology transfer. The main crux behind the “fair and equitable sharing” isn’t a monetary value but something that is negotiated and agreed fairly between the user and provider before sharing takes place. For many researchers this may already occur in an informal way, the Nagoya protocol just formalises the process and provides legal certainty.

Speakers from various industries also shared their views on Nagoya. For some of the speakers from huge historic collections, such as Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens, Nagoya implementation meant reassessing and tightening ABS systems already in place, which was seen as a positive action.

A speaker from AstraZeneca shared the systems they had put in place throughout the company to implement and raise awareness of Nagoya, including a great promotional video.

ABSCH opening webpage https://absch.cbd.int/

The workshop also raised a number of interesting discussion points about the challenges of Nagoya. For instance; the enormity of the task of ensuring all future research is Nagoya compliant, the difficulties for research that bridges the gap between non-commercial and commercial research, and that small pilot studies may not have the resources to implement Nagoya.

The relevant UK and EU authorities are aware of the challenges of Nagoya, and eager for feedback and suggestions of best practices to incorporate into future legislation and Nagoya implementation.

Therefore, for most of the challenges discussed positive ideas and solutions could be suggested. Some ideas raised at the workshop included; scientific journals requiring evidence of Nagoya competence before accepting papers, funding bodies providing small amounts of money to allow pilot studies to be Nagoya competent, and the idea of Nagoya competent registered collections of genetic resources (which is already an article in EU legislation).

It will take time for implementing Nagoya to become a clear and easy process, however, for the principles of undertaking fair research and moreover protecting biodiversity, it will be crucial and undoubtedly worth the effort.

Call for participation in 4th International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School - to be held in Cambridge!

The Synthetic and Systems Biology Summer School (SSBSS) is a full-immersion five-day residential summer school at the Robinson College - University of Cambridge - UK on cutting-edge advances in systems and synthetic biology with lectures delivered by world-renowned experts.

Biology meets Computer Science & Engineering

Recent advances in DNA synthesis have increased our ability to build biological systems. Synthetic Biology aims at streamlining the design and synthesis of robust and predictable biological systems using engineering design principles. Designing biological systems requires a deep understanding of how genes and proteins are organized and interact in living cells: Systems Biology aims at elucidating the cellular organization at gene, protein and network level using computational and biochemical methods.

The school provides a stimulating environment for students (from Master students to PhD students), Post-Docs, early career researches, academics and industry leaders. Participants will also have the chance to present their results (with Oral Talks and Posters), and to interact with their peers, in a friendly and constructive environment.

July 17-21, 2017 - University of Cambridge, Robinson College, UK

Website | Email | Facebook

DEADLINES

Application: March 31, 2017 Notification Acceptance: April 10, 2017 Oral Presentation/Poster Submission: March 31, 2017 Notification of Decision for Oral/Poster Presentation: April 10, 2017

SPEAKERS:

* Antonino Cattaneo, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, Italy * Jasmin Fisher, Microsoft Research & Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, UK * Carole Goble, University of Manchester, UK * Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge, UK * Jay Keasling, University of California, Berkeley, USA Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA Joint BioEnergy Institute, USA * Edda Klipp, Humboldt University, Germany * Natalio Krasnogor, Centre for Synthetic Biology and Bioexploitation, Newcastle University, UK * Markus Ralser, Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, University of Cambridge, UK & The Francis Crick Institute London, UK * Uwe Sauer, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland * Sarah Teichmann, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute & EMBL, European Bioinformatics Institute, UK

SCHOOL DIRECTORS:

* Massimo Gulisano, University of Catania, Italy * Giuseppe Nicosia, University of Catania, Italy * Steve G. Oliver, University of Cambridge, UK

Plants at iGEM2016: guest post by Geraint Parry

This article is authored by Gerant Parry and originally appeared on the GARNet blog, it is republished with permission. 

Photo credit: the iGEM Foundation and Justin Knight

Take a look over there! As even the name suggests, the iGEM Giant Jamboree is a conference like no other.

Consider that there are 2500 mostly undergraduate students from all around the world, the vast majority of them at their first conference and each giving presentations that are being critically assessed. This provides a clue as to the kind of frenetic and excited energy that characterises this event.

For those a little confused, the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation oversees and organizes iGEM, which is synthetic biology competition for groups of participants who are usually hosted by academic institutions. The basic idea is that a group of students works through the summer on a completely novel project that conforms to the principles of synthetic biology, before presenting it in the aforementioned Giant Jamboree.

As this is a competition, each project is judged on metrics that assess many aspects of the teams work. These include the contribution of biobricks to the iGEM registry (an impressive selection of molecular parts that are held within a standardised plasmid), the development of their novel project, initiating collaborations with other teams and their attempts to integrate human practices and public engagement into their project. By meeting certain criteria each team is eligible for Gold, Silver or Bronze medals alongside special prizes for different project categories.

Given registrations, student stipends, research expenses, travel and accommodation, putting forward even a small team can stretch to at least £20K. Therefore this is not a something to be taken lightly. To this financial requirement must be added the time donated by a team of instructors and advisors that support the students. However regardless of the cost, one thing is certain; for those students who participate, attend, present and are inspired by the Jamboree, it can be a career-defining moment.

Plant Synthetic Biology can make for a challenging summer!

Plant experimental chassis have not been widely used during the ten years of the iGEM competition where bacteria, yeast, mammalian cell lines or cell-free systems offer time efficient alternatives for the usual 10-week research period. However the iGEM foundation, alongside a group of committed advocates have recently developed the Phytobricks cloning standard, which is based on a recently published standard syntax within the Golden Gate cloning system. The aim is to lower the barrier of accessibility for teams to start plant projects and the evidence from this years competition seems to suggest that this is slowly happening. The 2016 iGEM team from Valencia-UPV is advised by plant synthetic biologist Diego Orzaez and their project submitted phytobricks for the expression of a split Cas9 system. They showed that the two halves of the Cas9 protein could reconstitute and was active in a tobacco expression system. They have documented this work on their Parts pages and this is hopefully a resource that will be used by future iGEM teams. Their team was very successful at the jamboree, winning a gold medal alongside specific awards for the best hardware  and software.

Another successful team with a plant project was from SCAU-China who had, over the course of at least two years, added an additional two genes to conventional Golden rice. This produces a ‘brown rice’ that produces the natural keto-carotenoid Astaxanthin, which is thought to have beneficial anti-oxidant properties. This is clearly a significant research project that has been badged with the iGEM logo and as such was very positively received by the judges. Although they did not submit parts in the Phytobricks standard it was exciting to see such a potentially high profile plant-project feature at the jamboree.   These projects are well deserving of their awards and their work builds upon years of expertise contained within the supporting labs. This highlights one of the challenges for the competitive element of iGEM; namely how teams can be equally judged when they have hugely varying levels of support. Fortunately it appears that this is not a significant issue as each team is able to take positives from their own performances and are happy to celebrate the excellent projects that they each had individually put together.

Remarkably the iGEM competition includes at least 30 high school teams and one of these, GDSYZX in China, worked with plant light responsive promoters that they added to the Parts Registry.

Algae on the rise.

A number of teams including Cambridge-JIC, Linkoping University in Sweden and USP_UNIFESP in Brazil used the algae Chlamydomonas_reinhardtii in their projects. Cambridge team had most success in their project that generated a set of parts in the Phytobrick standard that can be used in future algal projects. In addition they created a remarkable blueprint for the production of a prototype Genegun for plant transformation, costing just £300, making it accessible for less well funded labs. The other two teams mentioned above were hoping to use Chlamydomonas to produce either biofuels or spider silk protein and although the ambition of both projects outstripped their achievements this year, iGEM is all about thinking big: sometimes it works, sometimes not!

The team from Pretoria in South Africa took on an extremely ambitious plan called WattsApatmer to create ‘plant batteries’ by using short aptamers to attach either photosystem II or a laccase enzyme to either pole of an electrical circuit held within a novel graphene scaffold. The students made some progress with this and the project serves to highlight the blue-sky thinking that undergraduate students undertake as part of this competition. It is clearly difficult to make enormous progress over a summer project but there were so many amazing project ideas on display at this iGEM I hope that the host institutions can find finances to develop some of these ideas so that some can come to fruition to add value to the time already committed to these projects.

Europe on Top

From a UK and European perspective the iGEM jamboree was a huge success with Imperial College and LMU TU Munich taking the overall undergrad and overgrad awards respectively, with remarkable projects that highlighted the talent of their students and the level of support their receive from their host institutions.

The UK was represented by over 20 teams, the third most numerous behind the USA and China. Aside from Imperial College, the teams from Exeter, Dundee, Dundee Schools, Cambridge-JIC, Oxford, Sheffield, UCL, Glasgow and Manchester gained Gold medals. There is little doubt that the UK is developing a cohort of talented synthetic biologists who will be the research leaders of the future.

Overall we look forward to seeing the number of plant projects increase over the years to come. The development of the Phytobrick standard will undoubtedly help in this goal for students to come up with ideas to test the possibility of using plants in their projects.

There are exciting times ahead for plant synthetic biology!

Cambridge iGEM team win Gold Medal and Best Plant Synthetic Biology Prize at prestigious international competition

Summary: A team of Cambridge students have been awarded a Gold Medal and Best Plant Synthetic Biology Prize for their entry into the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition 2016.

iGEM is a prestigious international Synthetic Biology competition designed to challenge university students from around the world. This year more than 300 teams entered iGEM and came together on 27-31 October at the annual Giant Jamboree in Boston. The Jamboree represents a culmination of a summer’s worth of work, with the teams competing for prizes while learning from experts across the world. iGEM teams are tasked with designing a genetically modified system using ‘BioBricks’, a set of standardised biological parts, with the aim of having ‘a positive impact on their communities and the world’. The competition aims to bring synthetic bology, the melding of biology and engineering - to the forefront of research, in an effort to design innovative biological systems.

This year, the Cambridge team consisted of four Engineering and six Natural Sciences undergraduates, with support from faculty member advisors in Plant Sciences, Pathology, Engineering, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, and Physics - as well as engineering experts Cambridge Consultants, who sponsored the team.

Together they aimed to create a toolkit for algal chloroplast engineering, a process that holds great potential for producing everything from biofuels to edible vaccines both efficiently and in large quantities. In just ten weeks the team managed to generate a library of tested parts optimised for Chlamydomonas algae, build a gene gun for less than 1/100th of the current commercial price and design a genetic tool which helps achieve transformation of all DNA contained within a chloroplast (homoplasmy) in a much shorter timeframe than previously possible. This work won them a Gold Medal and the 2016 Best Plant Synthetic Biology Prize (overgrad category).

iGEM team member Ciara McCarthy said of the project: “We met a huge variety of people working in different disciplines, and spread our ideas about our project and synthetic biology as a whole through articles and outreach events. The opportunities that iGEM has given us will continue to have an influence well beyond this summer.”

The University of Cambridge is at the forefront of the plant synthetic biology field as co-host of the OpenPlant research centre. This is the first year that iGEM has featured a Plant Prize and Co-Director of OpenPlant Professor Jim Haseloff, who organised the first UK iGEM team in 2005, delivered a popular workshop on standards and tools for engineering plants to the global gathering of young synthetic biologists. Explaining the importance of plants as ‘chassis’ for synthetic biology, and the significance of the Cambridge iGEM project, Haseloff emphasised their sustainability. “We think that biological technologies are the underpinning of the 21st century’s industrial processes,” he said. “Plants are cheap and inherently sustainable, and have a major role to play in our future.”

OpenPlant Fund opens to applications for £5000 grants on plant or cell-free synthetic biology

OpenPlant Fund offers £5000 to support open, interdisciplinary and innovative projects to engineer plant biology. Applications are now open until 1 Dec 2016 for projects led from University of Cambridge or Norwich Research Park with external collaborators welcome. For this round applications focused on cell-free synthetic biology are also encouraged.

The aim of the OpenPlant fund is to promote the development of plant Synthetic Biology as an interdisciplinary field and to develop open technologies and responsible innovation in the context of plant Synthetic Biology.

This call is also encouraging applications related to use of cell-free extracts from bacteria, plants, yeast or other organisms to transcribe and translate engineered DNA. Cell-free synthetic biology is gaining popularity for prototyping genetic circuits and metabolic pathways and has many applications from production of biologics to paper-based diagnostic tests and biosensors.

OpenPlant Fund teams facilitate exchange between The University of Cambridge, the John Innes Centre, The Earlham Institute and The Sainsbury Laboratory and therefore are led by researchers from these institutions, but are open to all external collaborators.

Download: Poster | Flyer | 2015/16 Report

Apply now >>>

Want to learn more and find collaborators?

Join us at a mixer event at the Panton Arms on 21 November 2016, 18:00-20:00. Great talks from a previous funded project on microfluidics and from the Cambridge spin-off Sphere Fluidics plus an opportunity to pitch your idea or find a team to join!

Eligibility

Applicants should be graduate students or postdoctoral workers at the University of Cambridge, the John Innes Centre or The Sainsbury Laboratory. The team must be interdisciplinary, must contain members from both Norwich and Cambridge and may contain external collaborators of any type. Applicants must have agreement from their research supervisor and cost-code sponsor that the proposed project and management of the allocated funding will fit with their existing work. All proposals must lead to tangible, publicly documented and open outcomes, which could include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Design files and prototype for a hardware project
• Software development and documentation
• White paper arising from a workshop
• Educational resource
• Synthesis and sharing of useful DNA parts or vectors.

For more information and to apply see the OpenPlant Fund webpage.