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08:30

09:00

Century of Synthetic Biology: Cells, Chromosomes, Genes, and Parts
Luis Campos, Assistant Professor, Drew University
Today, roughly a century after its first appearance, "synthetic biology" has returned to the limelight once more, now standing for a multitude of efforts involving standardized biological parts, minimal genomes, metabolic engineering, and more. Understood in the broader sense as “the engineering approach to life,” synthetic biology thus has a rich and fascinating history well worth exploring in order to better understand the nature and promise of the field as it continues to evolve today.

09:30

The Current State of Regulation of Synthetic Biology
J. Mark Waxman, Partner, Foley & Lardner Healthcare Industry Team
Recent concerns with respect to the potential for adverse impacts, has resulted in increased interest in regulating the potential in this nascent industry. From voluntary industry efforts, to governmental hearings and the initiation of regulation, this area will continue to evolve. This presentation will address the current state of regulation, both actual and proposed, in the United States and Europe, of the synthetic biology effort.

10:00

Regulation-Innovation Interactions: What Works for Synthetic Biology?
Joyce Tait, Professor, University of Edinburgh
The type of regulatory system that emerges for synthetic biology, in the context of laboratory-based research and of the development of products and processes, will depend on a complex set of interactions between governments and various groups of stakeholders, both public and commercial. This presentation will give some examples of such impacts from the past and suggest what might be the potential pitfalls in the regulation of synthetic biology and how they might be avoided.

10:30

11:15

Keynote Presentation
Design Principles for Synthetic Biology
Richard Kitney, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London
The paper will address the design of biologically based devices developed from the standpoint of Synthetic Biology. The application of engineering design principles to Synthetic Biology will be presented, together with examples.

11:45

Diversity-Based Design of Synthetic Gene Networks with Desired Functions
Tom Ellis, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Boston, Applied Biodynamics Laboratory
My work focuses on synthesizing 'parts' with diversity, producing libraries for these parts, modeling how the different parts from each library will work in genetic networks and then making and testing those networks that will meet our needs. This is a new, better way of building synthetic gene networks up that I think everyone should know about, especially DNA synthesis companies.

12:15

12:30

13:30

14:30

Engineered Genetic Oscillators
Jeff Hasty, Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego
I will describe an engineered genetic oscillator in Escherichia coli that is fast, robust, and persistent, with tunable oscillatory periods as fast as 13 minutes. The oscillator was designed using a previously modeled network architecture comprising linked positive and negative feedback loops.

15:00

Nucleic Acid Hybrid Materials for Drug Delivery and Diagnostics
Andreas Herrmann, Professor, University of Groningen
Nucleic acids are combined with organic molecules and polymers in a covalent fashion to form molecular chimeras. These materials can be self-assembled in a programmable fashion which results in diagnostic and drug delivery devices.

15:30

16:00

From Single Enzymes to Pathways – Designs for Chiral Compounds’
John Ward, Professor of Molecular Microbiology, University College London
Single recombinant enzymes such as transketolase, transaminase, BVMO and P450 can be of great use in biocatalysis. These can be combined with one another or placed into truncated catabolic pathways to create the ability to make different chiral compounds.

16:30

Particle-Based Combinatorial Synthesis of Peptide Arrays
Frank Breitling, Lab Head, German Cancer Research Centre
We synthesise peptide arrays with the help of amino acid particles that are spatially defined addressed by a laser printer or a computer chip. A simple melting step induces the coupling reaction that - if repeated - results in high complexity peptide arrays.

17:00

Standardised Quantitative Measurements for Synthetic Biology
Alistair Elfick, Reader, University of Edinburgh
This presentation will survey the current best practise in characterisation of biological parts. The requirements and challenges for developing new technologies will be summarised. Novel measurement strategies will be presented to chart how these developments will underpin synthetic biology.

09:30

Computer-Aided Synthetic Biology: How Multiscale Models Can Rationalize the Design of Synthetic Gene Networks
Yiannis Kaznessis, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota
We present a theoretical formalism that connects synthetic DNA sequences to dynamic phenotypes. We develop SynBioSS a publicly available tool that allows users to build model of synthetic constructs, simulate their dynamic behavior, and optimize network topologies and mutant components.

10:00

10:45

Towards a Web of Distributed Registries
Timothy Ham, Team Lead, Joint BioEnergy Institute
As the number of biological parts that are created, tested, and manipulated grows, the need for informatics tools to organize, categorize, and manage them is becoming greater. The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) Registry is an open source web application and platform that provides all of the above components in a web accessible way.

11:15

Building Executable Biology Models for Synthetic Biology
Natalio Krasnogor, Department head, University of Nottingham
The leveraging of todays unprecedented capability to manipulate biological systems by state-of-the-art computational, mathematical and engineering techniques , may profoundly affect the way we approach the solution to pressing grand challenges such as the development of sustainable green energy, next generation healthcare, etc. The conceptual cornerstone of Synthetic Biology a field very much on its infancy- is that methodologies commonly used to design and construct non-biological artefacts (e.g. computer programs, airplanes, bridges, etc) might also be mastered to create designer living entities. Computational methods for modeling in Synthetic Biology consist of a list of instructions detailing an algorithm that can be executed and whose computation resembles the behavior of the biological system under study. This computational approach to modelling biological systems has been termed executable biology. In this talk I will describe current approaches for the automated generation and testing of executable biology models for synthetic biology.

11:45

13:00

13:45

Keynote Presentation
Rational Design of Microbial Chemical Factories: Enzymes as Interchangeable Parts
Kristala Prather, Assistant Professor, MIT
This presentation will examine applying principles of Synthetic Biology to the design and assembly of biosynthetic pathways for the production of value-added biochemicals.

14:15

Synthetic Biology of Multicellular Systems: Microfabrication and Micromanipulation Approaches
Gerard Markx, Professor of Bioprocessing, Heriot-Watt University
A variety of cell micromanipulation techniques for the creation of tissue-like materials and their application to the study of the interaction between cells in biofilms with defined internal architectures, artificial stem cell microniches and artificial skin will be discussed.

14:45

Application of Synthetic Biology Principles to the Design of New Devices for Biofilm Detection and Biofabrication
Geoff Baldwin, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biosciences, Imperial College London
We have recently applied the engineering principles of Synthetic Biology to design and implement a biofilm detection device that utilises the bacterial quorum sensing mechanism responsible for biofilm formation. The device can function in a cell-free chassis where transcription and translation machinery are utilised in vitro. This presentation will describe the specification, design, modelling, testing and characterisation of the device illustrating the emerging principles and interdisciplinarity of Synthetic Biology.

15:15

16:00

Synthetic Biology for RNA Manipulation: Rational Design of Supramolecular Biocatalytic Systems
Elena Bichenkova, Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry, The University of Manchester
This research develops a design platform for biocatalytic supramolecular systems mimicking the active centre of natural ribonucleases and capable of cleaving RNA. Some fundamental aspects underlying the molecular mechanisms and structural rules governing biological activity of such systems are considered.