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).

The iGEM team from Harvard 2010, and their iGarden have found their way to publication in the Journal of Biological Engineering. Their new paper, “A BioBrick compatible strategy for genetic modification of plants“

There have been a number of interesting stories recently that I have been meaning to write about, but time has got the better of me. There is a growing list of ‘draft’ posts at The 4th Domain, so I thought I would roll them all into one post

Here is an article from Integrated DNA Technologies that is well worth a read. IDT sponsored 11 teams in the 2011 iGEM competition.

This paper from Patrick Boyle and Pam Silver at Harvard/the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering (and who wouldn’t want to work there!) gives a nice comparison of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology.  If you thought it was all a cut-and-paste process with a large element of luck, then think again.  

There have been a number of reviews and special issues dedicated to the developing field of synthetic biology. These, I am sure, will be getting a mention as time goes on. As a first offering though I will draw attention to a special issue of Science from last autumn (2nd September 2011).