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Synthetic Biology Weekly Mashup – 1/11/13
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 ahead!
Amyris Undertakes New Project and Faces Criticism about Old One
After artemisinin and vanilla flavouring, Amyris announced an agreement with GOL Linhas Aereas Brazilian airline for the making of yeast-produced jet fuel, on the 23rd of October. While Amyris has been a pioneer and a driving force in synthetic biology, this week Claire Marris, from King’s College London and the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation in Imperial College, expressed her concerns on the lack of real social research on marketing artemisinin by Amyris and Sanofi. Her article highlights the social responsibility of scientists and how their claims should be realistic in order to avoid another GMO failure.
“BactoBot” Agreement for Wastewater Management
Another agreement signed this week was between Tauriga Sciences Inc. and Ohio-based Bacterial Robotics which licensed the development of a “BactoBot”, a microscopic robot that would clean salts and heavy metals from wastewater generated by nuclear power plants. The water industry is a 450 billion dollar market with numerous companies specialising in wastewater around the world. This is a big step for synthetic biology and could provide an innovative solution to a worldwide problem.
“Create Your Own” Exhibition in Dublin
A new exhibition in Dublin, curated by artists and scientists, showcases some possible and thought-provoking applications of synthetic biology. The exhibition is generating a lot of interest as it raises fundamental questions about designing life, the ‘biopunk’ movement and looks at synthetic biology through sart.
Craig Venter Publishes New Book
Craig Venter also bridged the gap between science and art, by stating in a recent interview that the reason he coded his name into the genome of his synthetic organisms was a similar act to the one of an artist signing his work. Venter has published his new book, Life at the Speed of Light in which he writes about his career and speculates about the future of synthetic biology. In a series of talks he gave he supported that with the current exponential evolution of biology due to the lowering cost of DNA sequencing, the creation of an artificial bacterial cell was a natural next step in the research path, and people shouldn’t be surprised if soon they would be able to 3D print vaccines from the comfort of their own home and be able to “life replicate” bacteria from other planets.
Isaac and Church Lab Alter 13 Codons in E. coli
Another milestone was set by Farren Isaac’s and George Church’s labs which recoded 13 codons in E. coli, and displayed increased resistance to virus infection. Back in 2011 George Church’s lab demonstrated how one can re-wire a STOP codon, a.k.a. a biological full sop, into a triplet encoding for an amino acid not found in nature, a.k.a. a new biological word. This could have massive application in biotechnology, as well as reinforce the safety of synthetic organisms, as their DNA won’t be compatible with any other natural organism.
Integrative and Synthetic Biology Centre in MIT Receives 5-year Grant
The MIT Centre for Integrative Synthetic Biology received today a $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Health. The five-year grant will support research into cancer therapy, infectious diseases and artificial tissue homeostasis for cells of the immune system, using synthetic and systems biology tools.
PhDs Are Everything – Getting Synthetic Biology PhDs Excited About Career Options
PhD Comics – The Plans
Many, many PhDs are indeed working in a variety of different jobs in industry, and most importantly, these numbers mean that the majority of PhDs are not pursuing a tenure track faculty position. Despite this, a perpetuating stigma exists that makes PhDs feel like failures if they are not working toward a tenure track career. For the advancement of all academic fields, but especially Synthetic Biology which is so interdisciplinary and at the interface with industry, we need to work together on breaking this stigma.
PhDs are everything. They are doing highly impactful and highly innovative work everywhere outside academia in unique and exciting positions. You can find PhDs in industry at all levels and in a variety of other positions from executives and administrators, legal and policy analysts, entrepreneurs, consultants, writers, editors, publishers, to marketing professionals. And the list could go on and on and on.
The stigma suggesting that PhDs are failures if they are not on the tenure track has to change and will change. The big question is when and how. One of the requirements of this change is a major shift in the way faculty think within academia. Once faculty (all faculty) support all possible career paths for PhDs, then it will be easier for graduate students and postdocs to pursue whatever career path they desire. In the meantime, let’s encourage graduate students, postdocs and all PhDs to pursue the career path that makes them happy rather than feeling trapped by a mentor and/or the pursuit of a tenure track position.
PhDs, please reach out to others that have moved outside academia and learn how they did so. Seek support from your peers. You’ll be surprised how eager other PhDs are to talk to graduate students and postdocs about these issues. You can read more about different types of careers for PhDs here, here and here. In addition to these links, spend a couple hours searching the web for others articles or websites that highlight all the possible careers for PhDs. If you just look, you will find a slew of resources available describing career options for PhDs and many different websites provide insight and support for graduate students and PhDs exploring career options like this one. Finally, I encourage you to check a project I recently started. What Are All The PhDs? is a Tumblr blog meant to put a personal spin on cataloging all the possible career paths for PhDs. Ultimately this site should help graduate students, postdocs and any PhD looking to explore careers paths to understand that PhDs are everything!
So, PhDs, go out in the world and be… everything!
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About the Author:
Nathan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Biotechnology, a PhD in Biochemistry, and an MBA with an operations management focus. He is an administrator, educator, consultant, writer/editor, and entrepreneur. Learn more at www.nathanvanderford.com.
The Synthetic Biology Market
The chemicals and energy segment has the largest share of the market, worth $80.6 million in 2008. This should reach $1.6 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 81.6%.
The biotechnology and pharmaceuticals segment is the second-largest market segment, worth 80.3 million in 2008. This segment is projected to increase at a CAGR of 49.2% to reach $594 million in 2013.
From the BCC report “Synthetic Biology: Emerging Global Markets” - Updated in 2011.