The Synthetic Biology mashup is a weekly review of articles and pieces of news related to synthetic biology. While we share most of this on our twitter feed, if you need to catch up on this week’s headlines just read on!
SynBio Consulting at Peptalk 2014
SynBio Consulting gave an opening keynote introducing Synthetic Biology last week in Palm Springs at the PepTalk Conference organised by Cambridge Healthtech. The program addressed various antibody-related topics through talks, seminars and short courses. SynBio Consulting also had a booth where we showcased recent and upcoming projects.
Illumina wins the $1000 human genome sequence race
Illumina announced at the J.P. Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference this week the achievement of a human-specific high-end sequencer able to sequence a human genome for less than $1000. While the advantages of this low-cost tool for personalised medicine and understanding natural genetic variation are indisputable, the cost of the machine starting from $10 million and sold only in systems of 10 could be an obstacle.
Nanoreactors mimicking basic eukaryotic cell processes created
Researchers at the Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, created nanoreactors mimicking basic eukaryotic cell processes. The multi-compartmentalized nano-structure was made using a droplet of water as the foundation, the “organelles” were engineered by injecting tailored enzymes into polymer nano-spheres and a polymer-based cellular wall was used to encapsulate them. The nanoreactor was able to perform enzymatic reaction cascades spamming across the multiple compartments. “What I cannot create, I do not understand” said Feynman, this synthetic cell promises to be an interesting platform to question many basic cellular processes.
Alternative Plant Phenylalanine Pathway Discovered at Purdue University opening a host of new metabolic engineering possibilities
Purdue University researchers published an article this week in Nature explaining how they discovered an alternative pathway in plants that produces phenylalanine, one of the twenty amino acids of living organisms, in a microbial-like way. It uses phenylpyruvate and converts it to phenylalanine by taking a nitrogen group from tyrosine, under relaxed regulation. This opens new possibilities for metabolic engineering to synthesize phenylalanine, which could help improve plants’ defence, serve as a base for cancer-treating drugs and yield more nutritional foods. Read more here
Towards new sustainable source of Omega-3 Fatty acids using bacteria
A team led by Rolf Muller at Saarland University in Germany identified a species of slime bacteria producing omega-3 long-chain PolyUnsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs). Two distinct PUFA pathways were identified differing greatly from those found in marine organisms.Sorangium cellulosum that can make linoleic acid and the new-found Aetherobacter that can make eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids. In this paper, scientists took the genes and transferred them into Myxococcus xanthus, a fast growing model strain, opening the door to the metabolic engineering for industrial production of chemical. This finding came out in the same time with the announcement of Rothamsted Research to develop plants producing omega-3 fatty acids which we featured in last week’s mashup
New Berkeley project on the Conversion of Methane to Liquid Transportation Fuel
Christer Jansson’s lab at Berkeley is working on optimizing an enzyme to efficiently convert the abundant supply of methane from wastewater treatments and landfills to liquid transportation fuel. Methanotrophs can gobble up methane but their enzymes are not efficient enough to make transportation fuels a reality. Instead, the scientist are engineering a different enzyme, very well understood, and that ordinarly takes in carbon dioxide, making it an ideal platform to tinker with Various divisions of the university are set to participate in this project with Novici Biotech, Kiverdi Inc. and Microvi Biotechnologies as industrial partners.
More Synthetic Biology in the Media this Week
The Independent had an interesting article about the University College London-based startupSynthace, the first Contract Research Organization in the UK specialised in the engineering of new biological production systems using Synthetic Biology tools. The article also featured the iGEM competition and other issues related to synthetic biology. The MotleyFool published an interesting article listing 5 technologies made possible by Synthetic Biology and highlights the possible applications and implications of these. These 5 “unbelievable but true” technologies are microbial factories for everyday products, biosensors for food pathogens, marijuana without the plant, fixing your genes to cure diseases and plants that produce their own nitrogen fertilisers.
That’s it for this week’s Synthetic Biology Mashup! A suggestion or a question? Shoot us an email.
