Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution and Design (SEED) Conference 2016
Abstract
Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution and Design (SEED) Conference 2016. Synthetic Biology is an emerging discipline that seeks to accelerate the process of engineering biology. As such, the tools are broadly applicable to application areas, including chemicals and biofuels, materials, medicine and agriculture. A characteristic of the field is to look holistically at cellular design, from sensing and genetic circuitry to the manipulation of cellular processes and actuators, to controlling metabolism, to programming multicellular behaviors. Further, the types of cells that are manipulated are broad, from in vitro systems to microbes and fungi to mammalian and plant cells and living animals. Many of the projects in synthetic biology seek to move biochemical functions across organisms. Underlying these capabilities is the development of new tools that operate in diverse hosts. For example, the CRISPR-Cas9 system that serves to “immunize” bacteria from phage has provided the fundamental chemistry that is used to edit the genomes of diverse organisms, including human stem cells, crop plants, and livestock animals. Other tools that need to be developed include computer aided design software and algorithms, large scale and low cost DNA synthesis and assembly, reliable genetic parts, and tools to program gene regulation. SEED 2016 will serve as the primary meeting at which international synthetic biology centers and related infrastructure (synthesis/software/foundries) meet to discuss technology, standards, and education. The field of Synthetic Biology is highly interdisciplinary with faculty and students spread across departments that focus on engineering (biological, chemical, electrical, mechanical, civil, computer science) and basic science (biology and systems biology, chemistry, physics). The diverse application areas extend the expertise farther, needing people from areas such as plant biology, agriculture and soil science, environmental science, medicine, and the chemical industry. While there have been many oneoff workshops and meetings on synthetic biology, the 2014 Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution and Design (SEED) Conference was the first instance of a regularly occurring meeting that serves as a reliable place to pull together the involved disciplines to organize and exchange advances in the science and technology in the field. SEED 2016 will be the third instance of this conference series. The SEED meeting occurs annually in the late spring/early summer to create a regular and reliable time and venue for the field. We have avoided partnering with specific universities to ensure a sense of inclusiveness for anyone working in the field. We have also implemented an open abstract submission process and many of the talks will be chosen from this pool. All of these decisions were made to convey an open and inclusive invitee list that encourages participation from early career scientists and those that are outside of the field. There are also many speaking slots that are available to young scientists (graduate students and postdocs) both integrated in the main sessions and in a dedicated section. Similar to 2014 and 2015, we will also have a focus on industry, with both large companies and start-ups represented and actively participating.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612670
Entities
People
- Michael C Jewett
Organizations
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy