Light and Life: Applications from physics to chemistry and biology Presented by Professor Siva Umapathy, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. By: National Physical Laboratory … Continue reading →

Whither thou goest, synthetic biology? First, lets put aside the dystopian scenarios of nasty modified viruses escaping from the fermentor Junior has jury-rigged in his bedroom lab. Designing virulent microbes is well beyond the expertise and budgets of homegrown biocoders. Moreover, its extremely difficult to improve on the lethality of nature, says Oliver Medvedik, a visiting assistant professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the assistant director of the Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering. The pathogens that already exist are more legitimate cause for worry. On the other hand, its probably too much to expect kitchen counter fermenting vessels stocked with customized microorganisms exuding insulin, biodiesel, and cant-believe-it-tastes-like-butter spreadable lipids. But I can see that kind of technology scaled up to the municipal level, says Medvedik. Large fermenter arrays could provide fuels, medicines, fiber anything carbon-based. Not every city can afford or would want a petroleum refinery to supply its fuel and chemical needs. Theyre expensive and dirty. But fermenting vessels are quiet, clean, versatile, and ultimately, cheaper. Medvedik is more associated with DIYbio than such industrial-scale applications. But his work at Cooper Union and Genspace, a nonprofit organization he founded to teach … Continue reading →

YPSILANTI -- In the nearly six years professor Anne Casper has been teaching biology at Eastern Michigan University, she has mentored 17 undergraduate students and five masters students, encouraging them as they learned to conduct scientific research. Caspers commitment to her students was recognized recently when she won an honorable mention for superior mentorship of undergraduate students in research. The Council on Undergraduate Research presented the award in the outstanding biology mentor division for young researchers. The council, founded in 1978, supports and promotes high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship. Membership includes nearly 10,000 individuals and more than 650 colleges and universities. Only one award and two honorable mentions were awarded nationally this year in Caspers category of six or less years of experience. Caspers award was a book on mentoring undergraduate researchers. This was quite a surprise, said Casper, of Ann Arbor. Its a national award so when I applied, I put together the most competitive application I could and hoped for the best. Nomination requirements included submitting a CV (resume), a letter of support from a colleague and two letters of support from undergraduate students. Leading biologists from around the country judged the competition. Professor Casper is … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Sep-2014 Contact: Guntram Bauer gbauer@hfsp.org 33-388-215-124 Human Frontier Science Program http://www.twitter.com/hfsp The Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) has announced that the 2015 HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon James Collins of Boston University and Harvard's Wyss Institute for his innovative work on synthetic gene networks and programmable cells which launched the exciting field of synthetic biology. The HFSP Nakasone Award was established to honour scientists who have made key breakthroughs in fields at the forefront of the life sciences. It recognizes the vision of former Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan in the creation of the Human Frontier Science Program. James Collins will present the HFSP Nakasone Lecture at the 15th annual meeting of HFSP awardees to be held in La Jolla, California, in July 2015. James Collins was one of the first to show that one can engineer biological circuits out of proteins, genes and other bits of DNA. He designed and constructed a genetic toggle switch - a bistable gene circuit with broad implications for biomedicine and biotechnology. This work represents a landmark in the beginnings of synthetic biology. He showed that synthetic gene networks can be used as regulatory modules and interfaced with … Continue reading →