The 4th Domain

Any recent graduates or undergraduates in their final year looking for PhD positions in synthetic biology, take note: there are six synthetic biology PhD studentships available at the University of Exeter looking at biomethane-producing microbial communities (BMCs).

Christina Agapakis (aka Oscillator) discusses a recent paper from Pam Silver’s lab in this post, “magnetic yeast“.

Biology is the raw material for synthetic biology. In this paper, ‘Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by endophytic fungi‘ published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, the authors describe fungal isolates from the Ecuadorian rainforest with the potential for bioremediation.

Here’s a documentary and introduction to synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. The film follows the ParaSight iGEM project from Imperial College London 2010.

There was plenty of controversy generated at the end of 2010 by the suggestion that a particular Halophilic bacteria (GFA-J1) could incorporate arsenic into DNA in place of phosphorous. But perhaps the most interesting outcome was not the research itself, but the online response.