The deadline for applications to the Biomaker Challenge 2021: Exploring Plants Soil and the Environment will be 15th November 2021.
Hear from the Biomaker Challenge 2020 finalists and find out more about their low-cost, open-source biological hardware projects.
The OpenPlant Fund supports innovative, open and interdisciplinary projects relevant to plant synthetic biology and cell-free systems. The latest call for applications closed recently, and all applicants will be pitching their project proposals at this event. Come along to hear a variety of interesting and innovative short talks about projects in biology, instrumentation, training and building low-cost resources for schools in Ghana - the full timetable and list of proposal submissions is below. Lunch will be included for those who register to attend the event.
If you are travelling from Cambridge for the pitches, you are welcome to also join the 11:30 JIC Friday Seminar given by Prof. Christina Smolke on Synthetic biology platforms for plant natural product biosynthesis and discovery. Please register your interest in attending this seminar in the registration form (link at top of page).
Information and outcomes from previous projects funded through this scheme can be found at www.biomaker.org.
11:30 Seminar by Prof. Christina Smolke on Synthetic biology platforms for plant natural product biosynthesis and discovery
12:30 Lunch (room G36)
13:15 Introduction and first round of pitches (room G34/35)
Focus Stacking for Teaching and Publication in Plant Sciences: Jennifer Deegan (Plant Sciences, UCam), Richard Mortier (Computer Science and Technology, UCam), Tim Deegan (Computing industry), Christopher Whitewoods (JIC), Matthew Couchman (JIC), Aleksandr Gavrin (SL, UCam)
Actin visualization: to disclose mechanisms of host cell reorganisation during interactions with microbes: Aleksandr Gavrin (SL, UCam), Wendy Harwood (JIC)
Comparative analysis of cell free and in planta protein synthesis systems: Susan Duncan (EI), Laura-Jayne Gardiner (EI), Quentin Dudley (EI), Philippa Borrill (JIC), Pallavi Singh (Plant Sciences, UCam)
Cell-free proteins synthesis as a resource for generating plant proteins: Quentin Dudley (EI), Susan Duncan (EI), Nicolas Larus-Stone (Department of Computer Science, UCam)
'R for Proteomics' training proposal: Jan Sklenar (TSL, Norwich), Laurent Gatto (Computational Proteomics Unit, UCam), Marielle Vigouroux (JIC), Govind Chandra (JIC)
Towards an efficient transformation system for legumes: Abhimanyu Sarkar (JIC), Julia Russell (JIC)
14:20 Coffee Break
14:40 Second round of pitches
Time Series Analysis of Environmental Variables to enable GxE studies: A Machine Learning and Open Hardware Approach to Plant Research Experimentation: Daniel Reynolds (EI), Aaron Bostrom (EI), Joshua Ball (EI)
Open-Cell: An Open-Source 3D Printable System for High-Throughput Cell-Free Screening: Clayton Rabideau (Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, UCam), Stefan Grossfurthner (Plant Sciences, UCam)
Development of open source camera trap powered by plant microbial fuel cell (pMFC): Paolo Bombelli (Biochemistry, UCam), Rachael Kemp (Zoological Society of London), Alasdair Davies (Zoological Society of London)
Open Source Resources for Teaching Synthetic Biology in Low-Resource Settings: Sabrina Gonzalez-Jorge (Plant sciences, UCam), Hans Pfalzgraf (UEA and JIC), Alexis Moschopoulos (University of Leeds), Aseda Addai-Deseh (Kumasi Hive), Anna Lowe (Kumasi Hive)
Design of synthetic plant and mammal gene regulatory networks using nonparametric Bayesian approaches: Christopher Penfold (Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute, UCam), Marc Jones (Computational and Systems Biology, JIC), Iulia Gherman (Biology, UYork), Anastasiya Sybirna (Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute, UCam)
15:30 Closing Remarks
RSVP to this event here >>
OpenPlant Fund: Help will be on hand at this Cafe Synthetique to answer any questions you might have in relation to the current OpenPlant Fund call as the deadline for applications approaches, and to find last minute partners for your teams!
Circadian rhythms and cycling patterns of gene expression have great significance for living organisms - including ourselves! Find out more from our two speakers about the molecular basis of circadian rhythms and how close we are to engineering them using synthetic biology.
'Approaches to investigate the circadian system in Marchantia'
Lukas Mueller, Department of Plant Sciences
Lukas will speak about his OpenPlant project - an investigation into the circadian clock in Marchantia polymorpha and analysis of the regulation of clock behaviour and outputs in this relative of early land plants.
Circadian Rhythms: Everything you always wanted to know about Jet Lag (but were too tired to ask)
John O'Neill, MRC-LMB
John's talk feature a whirlwind tour through the history of chronobiology research, from the 4th century BC to the recent Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine and provide an insight into how disruption of this biological clock, as occurs during shift work, is linked with conditions such type II diabetes, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease and various cancers.
Transport will be arranged for participants travelling from Cambridge. The event will take place in the Rec Centre Bar at the John Innes Centre.
In this fun and informative session, meet new people while you learn tips and tricks for delivering training, discover different models and approaches to training, and explore how to effectively communicate technical details. More details to follow.
Following the training session, there will be an introduction to the opportunities offered by the OpenPlant Fund, a chance to present your initial proposals and to meet potential collaborators and network over drinks and pizza.
More information about the OpenPlant Fund can be found at www.openplant.org/fund. The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 24 November.
This event provides an opportunity to discuss your ideas for OpenPlant Fund proposals for innovative and interdisciplinary projects in plant synthetic biology or prototyping projects for the Biomaker Challenge.
Come along for an introduction to the opportunities, a chance to present your initial proposals and to meet potential collaborators over drinks and snacks.
A group will go for dinner in The Eagle after the event, all welcome.
The OpenPlant Fund (deadline 30 Jun 2017)
The OpenPlant Fund supports innovative, open and interdisciplinary projects relevant to plant Synthetic Biology. The next call for applications is now open and will close on 4 March 2016.
The OpenPlant Fund has already supported 40 projects with very diverse aims, from lab-based projects to generate and characterise DNA parts, through hardware and software projects to workshops in intellectual property, hackathons and outreach.
The Biomaker Challenge (deadline 23 Jun 2017)
Biomaker Challenge is a four-month programme challenging interdisciplinary teams to build low-cost sensors and instruments for biology. From colorimeters to microfluidics and beyond, we’re looking for frugal, open source and DIY approaches to biological experiments.
Participants will receive a Biomaker Toolkit and a discretionary budget for additional sensors, components, consumables and 3D-printing worth up to £1000. All teams will exhibit their device at a Biomaker Fayre in early November.
Join others interested in participating in the Biomaker Challenge or OpenPlant Fund for drinks, snacks and sharing ideas for projects. There will also be the opportunity to find out more about the challenge, see some of the past projects that have inspired it and ask the organisers questions.
Science Makers in June will precede a longer meetup to build equipment for the Biomakespace, a fledgling community lab for biology and engineering being established at the Biomedical Campus. Find out about a range of projects in low-cost equipment for molecular biology and imaging, see how internet of things technology is making it easier than ever before to connect equipment together and operate it remotely.
There will be an opportunity to find out more about the Biomaker Challenge and OpenPlant Fund, meet others interested in participating and ask questions.
