The Synthetic Biology Mashup is a weekly review of articles and news related to synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. While we share most of this on our twitter feed, if you need to catch up on this week’s news just read ahead!
E. coli Producing Shikimic acid in High Concentrations
In a research published this week in Microbial Cell Factories, scientists from Guangzhou, China, engineered an E. coli strain to produce shikimic acid (SA) using triclosan-induced chromosomal evolution. Guangzhou scientists, further enhanced SA production by increasing NADPH availability. SA is normally produced from the seeds of Chinese star anise and is a key intermediate for the synthesis of anti-influenza drugs. However, plants cannot deliver a stable supply of SA and previous attempt at creating engineered microbial strain for SA production were plasmid-based and suffered from genetic instability
Ambitious New French Pharmaceutical Scheme to Cooperate with the Cuban Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
French Venture Capital firm Truffle Capital announced this week the creation of a new pharmaceutical company, ABIVAX, in a first-of-a-kind collaboration with the Cuban Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). ABIVAX aims to become a world leader in the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs, by combining the expertise provided by the Cuba partner with the technologies and product portfolios of three French biotech companies financed by Truffle (Wittycell, Splicos and Zophis). Their first target is the development of a therapeutic vaccine for Hepatitis B in Phase IIb of clinical trials, a novel anti-viral drug for AIDS scheduled to enter clinical trials in Q1 2014, and a Human Papilloma Virus therapeutic vaccine expected to enter into a Phase I clinical trial in 2015.
MIT Students Hacking Reader’s Brain by Prototyping Books Sharing Protagonist’s Feelings
Students from the MIT class “Science Fiction to Science Fabrication” created a wearable book that uses cheap technology and brain tricks to transmit protagonist’s feelings to the reader. The interesting project at the interface with art is called Sensory Fiction. The first prototype is a vest that plugs into Tiptee’s book “The girl that was plugged in” and changes shape and temperature depending on the page the reader is at.
Washington State University Business Orientated Genetic Engineering Research
Following the recent article in Nature about the shift of Synthetic Biology research towards fine chemicals for feasibility and economic reasons, the Seattle Times had a close look at the research being currently undertaken at WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry. Led by Norman Lewis, the institute is working on the production of 2-phenylethanol, the compound that gives roses their characteristic aroma, by genetically engineering poplar trees. The compound can also be further processed to produce components of jet fuel and there are plans to commercialize the product through their spin-off company, Elasid. Interestingly, the institute is very much working on scaling up their innovations and is now doing open field tests with over 12,000 trees spread over 11 acres. This is the biggest ongoing field test of genetically engineered trees in the US — and perhaps the world.
Synthetic Biology in the News
A French article summarising the current state of synthetic biology and its future directions.
An interesting article about the variety of participants at the Berkeley BioLabs space, and by extension to the overall growing DIYbio movement.
An interview with Camille Delebecque, Founder of Synbio Consulting.
That’s it for this week’s Synthetic Biology Mashup! A suggestion or a question? Shoot us an email!
