Life is what you make it

On Friday 29 November 2013, Professor Paul Freemont delivered a lecture at the Friday Evening Discourse event, ‘Life is what you make it’, at the Royal Institution.

About the lecture

The ‘reading’ of DNA is a solved technological problem but what about ‘writing’ DNA? Could we program or reprogram biological systems and even generate new life forms? Paul Freemont explored how the powerful fusion of molecular biology, design and engineering could lead to a ‘Biotechnological Revolution’ and considered the implications of the extraordinary field of synthetic biology.

An audio of the event is available here.

On 17 June 2014 Professor Richard Kitney delivered the prestigious Kelvin lecture at the Royal Institution, London. The Kelvin lecture is one of the IET’s oldest public lectures, founded in 1908 as a memorial to William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907), former President (1874, 1889 and 1907, dying in the post) and Honorary Member of IEE.
Professor Kitney spoke about Synthetic Biology: ‘One of the eight great technologies’. A video of the lecture is available from the IET.

About the presentation
In 2012 The World Economic Forum in Davos listed synthetic biology as an area which is likely to have major impact on the world economy in the future. What is the truth of this statement and what underlies the assertion?

The lecture will address this question and put it in the context of the related science and engineering – and how this can be applied in relation to industrial translation. What are some of the key drivers of the field, why has this new field arisen in the early part of this century, and how is it different from traditional biology?

These questions will be addressed in the context of the molecular biology revolution which occurred during the second half of the 20th century – and continues today. Many of today’s important industries are based on oil.

The model for these industries and industrial process is, in turn, based on developments in synthetic chemistry during the second half of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century.

The demand for oil is increasing rapidly and alternative model for industrial processes is now being developed, based on bio-based feedstocks and synthetic biology, with wide application. Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer biologically based parts, novel devices and systems – as well as redesigning existing, natural biological systems.

It is the engineering of biology through systematic design and the application of the engineering tenets of modularity, characterisation standardisation. From an economic standpoint these developments are important because the new model translates very effectively in knowledge-based industries.

For countries with few natural resources, but strong science and technology base, this is attractive model, because it represents a vehicle for new economic development.

The link between synthetic biology and heightened biosecurity threats is often exaggerated. In a report published today (22nd May) researchers at King’s College London say that in order to produce more refined assessments of the biosecurity threat, we need to understand more clearly what would be achieved by synthetic biology’s goal to ‘make biology easier to engineer’. The report is based on a workshop organised in February 2014 by Dr Catherine Jefferson, Dr Filippa Lentzos and Dr Claire Marris. The workshop brought together synthetic biologists, social scientists, policy experts and science journalists to explore whether concerns about these risks are realistic or exaggerated in the light of current scientific realities.

Read more about the report on the SSHM Blog here

The report can be downloaded here

Join the debate on twitter: #synbiosec

For more work on the social dimensions of synthetic biology go to CSynBI@KCL

A Synthetic Biology Roadmap for the UK was published in July 2012:

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/publications/reports/syntheticbiologyroadmap/

SB6.0, the international meeting in Synthetic Biology organised by the Biobricks Foundation was held at Imperial College in July 2013. http://sb6.biobricks.org/ .

A new £10m Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) to drive the UK’s synthetic biology process is to be launched, David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, announced at the SB6.0 Conference.

The innovative centre, SynbiCITE, will be based at Imperial College London and will link  university and industry-based research in synthetic biology and creating industrial processes and products. It will be  funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and will help turn academia and industry-based research into commercial success.

SynbiCITE will be led by Professor Richard Kitney and Professor Paul Freemont, and will be a national resource and involving researchers from a further 17 universities and academic institutions across the UK, as well as over 13 industrial partners, including the research arms of Microsoft, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline.

In announcing this investment David Willetts told researchers at the SB6.0 conference “Synthetic biology has huge potential for our economy and society…but to realise this potential we need to ensure researchers and business work together “.

The announcement is part of a £60m investment in Synthetic Biology by the UK government. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-60-million-for-synthetic-biology

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2013/Pages/syntheticbiologyprogress.aspx

Over 60 members of the Flowers consortium met in May 2013 at Cumberland Lodge  in Windsor Great park to discuss the progress made in the first year of the project in creating an Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology. Over 2 days of talks covered Parts and Device Characterisation, Models and Modelling , Information Systems and Standards, DNA Assembly and Chassis Characterisation and Responsible Innovation, Translation and Commercialisation. There were talks on  7 application projects in progress.