Course - Cold Spring Harbor, United States
The goal of synthetic biology is to enable the predictable reprogramming of cells to execute complex physiological activities. It takes inspiration from our ever-expanding ability to measure and perturb biological systems and the philosophical reflections of Schrodinger and Feynman that rational, physical laws can be used to describe and engineer biology to accomplish useful things. However, biological systems are noisy, massively interconnected, and non-linear. The grand challenge for synthetic biology is therefore how to reconcile the desire for a predictable, formalized design process with the inherent ‘squishiness’ of biology.
This course will focus on how the complexity of biological systems, combined with traditional engineering approaches, results in the emergence of new design principles for synthetic biology. In the lab, students will be introduced to the design-build-test cycle, in which libraries of biological parts are composed into larger modules and evaluated using a variety of high-throughput techniques. Students will work in teams to solve challenges introduced by the instructors and learn how bacterial and eukaryotic regulation of all forms – transcriptional, translational, post-translational, and epigenetic – can be used to engineer cells to do useful things. In addition, internationally-recognized invited speakers will give students a broad overview of applications for synthetic biology, including renewable chemical production and therapeutics, and the current state-of-the-art techniques for both bottom-up and top-down design.
Synthetic biology is an inherently interdisciplinary field.
(Courtesy of Synthetic Biology, via openthefuture.com)
Tue, Jul 30, 2013 - Mon, Aug 12, 2013
CSHL Campus, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
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