Synthetic Biology  

The tools and capabilities of synthetic biology are revolutionizing science and medicine by enabling the targeted design, engineering and construction of biological systems. Now researchers can even print genomic sequences and pathways that will help to address life’s most challenging questions. 

Emailing medicine and even organisms across the planet, and potentially across the solar system may be possible with a new device developed by Synthetic Genomics. The company founded by J. Craig Venter, the geneticist behind the first successful human genome sequencing and many other biotech breakthroughs.

The new tabletop device is called the Digital-to-Biological Converter, or DBC under the tradename BioXp. The machine accepts digital representations of DNA over the internet and reconstructs them on the spot using the chemical building blocks of life—adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine.

It is the the world’s first DNA printer, a machine which will allow any biotechnology company or academic laboratory to create genes, genetic elements and molecular tools on their benchtop hands-free, starting with electronically transmitted sequence data. The device is set to dramatically improve the workflow for applications such as protein production, antibody library generation and cell engineering, says Synthetic Genomics.

The machine can print DNA, RNA, viruses, some kinds of vaccines, and bacteriophages to kill infections.

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Julie Robinson,  SGI-DNA, a Synthetic Genomics, Inc. (SGI) company, Senior Product Manager stated in a press release for the device that, "In just 9 months, since the BioXp™ System was first launched, SGI-DNA is delivering on its stated plan to expand instrument capabilities. Our more than 25 life science research laboratory customers throughout the United States can upgrade their systems seamlessly over the internet without any hardware changes.  This scalable design is at the heart for the BioXp™system.  By launching the cloning module SGI-DNA is moving from early access to full launch of the BioXp™ 3200 System."

The BioXp allows scientists to automate cloning 32 synthetic genes directly in a vector of up to 12 kb in a single hands-free overnight run. This capability allows much greater versatility for downstream applications. The BioXp System utilizes the Gibson Assembly method to provide seamless, high efficiency cloning.

The BioXp could allow what Venter has called biological teleportation where, "You will be able to download insulin from the internet" and new diseases will be sequenced and cured in hours with the treatments dispersed digitally."

SOURCE  Motherboard

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Biomaterials  

Producing artificial spider silk has long been a dream of many scientists.  Now, a team of researchers claims to have developed a method that works. They report that they can produce kilometer long threads that resemble real spider silk.

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Being able to produce artificial spider silk has long been a dream of many researchers, but all attempts have until now involved harsh chemicals and have had limited results. Now, a team of researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Karolinska Institutet claims to have developed a method that works. They report that they can produce kilometer long threads that resemble real spider silk.

The results were recently published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

Spider silk is an attractive material–it is well tolerated when implanted in tissues, it is light-weight but stronger than steel, and it is also biodegradable. Spiders though, are difficult to keep in captivity and they spin small amounts of silk.

Any large scale production must involve the use of artificial silk proteins and spinning processes. A biomimetic spinning process is probably the best way to manufacture fibers that resemble real spider silk. Until now, this has not been possible because of difficulties to obtain water soluble spider silk proteins from bacteria and other production systems, and therefore strong solvents has been used in previously described spinning processes.

Spider silk is made of proteins that are stored as an aqueous solution in the silk glands, before being spun into a fiber. Researcher Anna Rising and her colleagues Jan Johansson and Marlene Andersson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and at Karolinska Institutet have previously shown that there is an impressive pH gradient in the spider silk gland, and that this well-regulated pH gradient affects specific parts of the spider silk proteins and ensures that the fiber forms rapidly in a defined place of the silk production apparatus.

This knowledge has now been used to design an artificial spider silk protein that can be produced in large quantities in bacteria. This, in turn, enables the production of the material in an industrial quantity.

"This artificial protein is as water soluble as the natural spider silk proteins, which means that it is possible to keep the proteins soluble at extreme concentrations."

"To our surprise, this artificial protein is as water soluble as the natural spider silk proteins, which means that it is possible to keep the proteins soluble at extreme concentrations", says Anna Rising.

To mimic the spider silk gland, the research team constructed a simple but very efficient and biomimetic spinning apparatus in which they can spin kilometer-long fibers only by lowering the pH.

"This is the first successful example of biomimetic spider silk spinning. We have designed a process that recapitulates many of the complex molecular mechanisms of native silk spinning. In the future this may allow industrial production of artificial spider silk for biomaterial applications or for the manufacture of advanced textiles", says Rising.

SOURCE  Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

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Genomics  

Recently Andrew Hessel presented a tremendous keynote address at the Congress On the Future of Engineering Software on the state-of-the-art in genetic engineering and what the future of biotechnology might bring. This is must-watch material.

In his keynote address at the recent Congress On the Future of Engineering Software (COFES) conference, the former co-chair of bioinformatics and biotechnology at Singularity University, Andrew Hessel presented the current state of biotechnology and what lays beyond in the not-too-distant future.

In his talk titled, “Virus Engineering and Beyond” (available below), Hessel, now with Autodesk as a research scientist, talked about the programming of living things. He believes that we are now advancing from reading genetic code to writing it. This means that we can design tools specific for living organisms and prototype the processes to bring these designs into the real world.

"Now that we have this foundation in genomics we can start to think about writing code."

As Hessel explains, the exponential nature of genetic engineering technology. "This is the golden age of sequence, and it is only going to keep going," he states."Computer technology moved pretty fast, but DNA sequencing has broken every record."

More than just a futurist on the subject, Hessel is taking a leading role in bringing about the writing of genetic code as part of the leadership of the recently announced Human Genome Project-write initiative. The project aims to build a human genome from the ground up. "Now that we have this foundation in genomics we can start to think about writing code," says Hessel.

Hessel describes how viruses can be the simplest way to make big changes in healthcare and genomics. He makes fighting cancer sound very simple with the idea of viral engineering, which encompasses using software to design and make viruses — and 3D print them.

Looking ahead, Hessel says that as biotechnology tools continue to get cheaper, it will get weirder as well. He describes how researchers are now modifying yeast to produce beer with nearly any gene including creating medical beer and caffeinated beer as well.

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Genomics breakthroughs also may dramatically extend our life spans. Hessel points to a recent study where scientists were able to modify cells in mice to essentially commit suicide as they became too old, thereby keeping the overall organism healthier. The results were mice that lived over 20% longer than average.

Continuing on Hessel predicts that real life Eldon Tyrell's and J.S. Sebastian's that will push forward engineering that blends silicon and carbon. The corporate and open-source versions portrayed in Blade Runner will be reality claims Hessel.

Hessel also points to Alec Ross's book, The Industries of the Future, which states that, "The last trillion-dollar industry was built on a code of 1s and 0s. The next will be built on our own genetic code."

Hessel’s work extends CAD and 3D printing into biology, a vast design space that is largely unexplored. Hessel says that cells are the ultimate 3D printers; they can be programmed to produce millions of compounds, including medicines, foods, or fuels—or used as ink in 3D printers.

Hessel is a futurist and catalyst in biological technologies, helping industry, academics, and authorities better understand the changes ahead in life science. He is a Distinguished Researcher with Autodesk Inc.’s Bio/Nano Programmable Matter group, based out of San Francisco. He is also the co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative, the world’s first cooperative biotechnology company, which is aiming to make open source viral therapies for cancer.

We are sure you will agree that the talk is inspiring and Hessler's enthusiasm is contagious.

SOURCE  COFES 2016

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 Medicine  

As medicine and healthcare become exponential technologies we will see huge accelerated changes in the medical field.  Here are five innovations that are especially interesting for the near horizon.

Our world is rapidly becoming one of gadgets, electronics, and devices due to the steady advancement of new technology that happens almost daily. While it’s exciting to think of the developments that will be made for smartphones and computers in the coming years, it’s also amazing to see how much technology has altered the world of medicine, knowing that this alteration will only continue.

Although it will take a while to get each of these exciting developments up and running, they will be extremely beneficial in our lives once they experience success and become commonplace in the world of medicine

In the coming decade, we can expect to see a wide array of changes in the medical field due to rapid changes and developments in technology. The clash of scientific breakthroughs, improved technologies, and global proliferation will contribute to the creation of innovations that will change the face of healthcare. Read on to learn about a few innovations that patients should get excited about.

Electronic Aspirin

This technology is ideal for people who suffer from chronic pains like migraines. The electronic aspirin system works by placing a device that stimulated nerves in the gums. This implant connects to the sphenopalatine ganglion (a nerve) which has been linked to chronic pains in the head. The implant makes it possible for the patient to trigger the implant to stimulate this area of the body. The stimulation triggers the blockage of the neurotransmitters that are responsible for the pain. This type of device would eliminate the need for constantly taking pain killers or anti-inflammatories, which can have damaging effects over time.

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Uses of Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is the process of creating and ordering genes into different sequences and combinations. Though we have already seen some applications of this in the medical field, it is more apparent in industries like alternative fuel and agriculture. We can expect to see revolutions in the medical field concerning genetics in the coming decade. Some of the first things to look for will be synthetic biology being applied to transplants and disease fighting technology. While this type of technology is still in the early stages within the medical field, the potential for success is extremely thrilling.

Better Diabetes Medication

Current relief and care for diabetes patients often requires needles used to test blood, glucose tests, daily shots, and a great deal of monitoring. Technology is currently being developed that would rid patients of the need for all of this monitoring and pricking. Instead of using needles, these products will make use of a patch that can read blood chemistry without drawing blood. The patch then sends the data to a monitor where patients can track the data. This is an exciting prospect for those with diabetes as well as their loved ones who have hoped for better technology in this area for many years. Once this technology is fully developed and working, there is no telling how many thousands of people it will help.

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Electronic Diagnoses

Special robotics are currently being developed to assist in medical check-ups and diagnoses. With the use of cutting edge robotic design, developers are making medical robots that will soon be able to run shifts in routine hospital and clinical work and charting information for doctors. This technology is an amazing addition for areas that are medically underserviced. In the long run, it can cut the costs of medical care and eliminate human error in many regards. While many patients might not look forward to have a robot-nurse or medical assistant, the development of this type of technology will help to supplement shortages in areas that are understaffed. Patients will no long have to suffer due to a lack of staff at a hospital or clinic, and they will hopefully be able to enjoy cheaper healthcare as well.

Brain-Computer Interfaces

BCIs help patients that suffer from paralyzation. The technology allows these patients to control movements with only their brains. The basic idea is that the technology will allow patients to control robotic body extensions with nothing but their minds to help them become more independent and mobile. This technology requires very detailed and intricate research and study, so it might take a while before it is functioning, but imagine the joy and freedom it will bring to paralyzed patients who can use their bodies once again in a manner of speaking.


These and other upcoming innovations in the medical field will undoubtedly revolutionize healthcare as we now know it. The only downside to combining technology and healthcare is that it takes years to get these systems exactly right—new medical technology has to be relentlessly tested to ensure that it won’t further endanger the lives of patients. Typically if a computer program or app doesn’t work, it won’t cost anyone’s life. But when you are working with human lives, the technology has to be just right. Although it will take a while to get each of these exciting developments up and running, they will be extremely beneficial in our lives once they experience success and become commonplace in the world of medicine. The information for this article was provided by the health technology professionals of Chiro8000 who specialize in chiropractic software that allows chiropractic clinics to more efficiently help their patients.

By Dixie Somers

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 Exponential Technology  

Six key exponential technologies: 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, the "Internet of Things," infinite computing and synthetic biology are described in a new Draw Shop video created for Peter Diamandis.

Armed with exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing and cloud computing, today's entrepreneurs are poised to create abundance.

"In the future [AI] will look more like Jarvis from Marvel's Iron Man, quickly gathering incomprehensible amounts of data from the Internet to make incredibly accurate split-second decisions."

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This Draw Shop video, originally created for entrepreneurs in Peter Diamandis' Abundance 360 coaching program, illustrates the powerful implications of six key technologies: 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, the "Internet of Things," infinite computing and synthetic biology.

"Today's artificial intelligence exists in the forms like Siri and IBM's Watson which understood the nuances in human language," claims the video's narrator.  "In the future it will look more like Jarvis from Marvel's Iron Man, quickly gathering incomprehensible amounts of data from the Internet to make incredibly accurate split-second decisions."

Learn more about Abundance 360 and apply here: http://abundance360summit.com.


SOURCE  Peter Diamandis

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 Biotech  

Researchers have created the first method to reproduce the structure, functions and cellular make-up of bone marrow in the laboratory. The new device gives scientists a much-needed new method to test the effects on bone marrow of toxic agents and new drugs to prevent lethal radiation poisoning and dangerous side effects of cancer therapies, all without animal testing.

The latest organ-on-a-chip from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering reproduces the structure, functions and cellular make-up of bone marrow, a complex tissue that until now could only be studied intact in living animals, Institute researchers report in the journal Nature Methods. The DARPA-funded reseach device, dubbed "bone marrow-on-a-chip," gives scientists a much-needed new tool to test the effects of new drugs and toxic agents on whole bone marrow.

"We figured, why not allow Mother Nature to help us build what she already knows how to build."

Specifically, the device could be used to develop safe and effective strategies to prevent or treat radiation's lethal effects on bone marrow without resorting to animal testing, a challenge that is being pursued at the Institute with funding support from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). In an initial test, the engineered bone marrow, like human marrow, withered in response to radiation unless a drug known to prevent radiation poisoning was present.

The bone marrow-on-a-chip could also be used in the future to maintain a cancer patient's own marrow temporarily while he or she underwent marrow-damaging treatments such as radiation therapy or high-dose chemotherapy.

"Bone marrow is an incredibly complex organ that is responsible for producing all of the blood cell types of our body, and our bone marrow chips are able to recapitulate this complexity in its entirety and maintain it in a functional form in vitro ," said Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., Founding Director of the Wyss Institute, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, Professor of Bioengineering at SEAS, and senior author of the paper.

Ingber leads a large effort to develop human organs-on-chips – small microfluidic devices that mimic the physiology of living organism. So far the research teams have built lung, heart, kidney, and gut chips that reproduce key aspects of organ function, and they have more organs-on-chips in the works. The technology has been recognized internationally for its potential to replace animal testing of new drugs and environmental toxins, and as a new way for scientists to model human disease.

To build organ chips, in the past Wyss teams have combined multiple types of cells from an organ on a microfluidic chip, while steadily supplying nutrients, removing waste, and applying mechanical forces the tissues would face in the body. But bone marrow is so complex that they needed a new approach to mimic organ function.

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This complexity arises because bone marrow has an integral relationship with bone. Marrow sits inside trabecular bone — a solid-looking type of bone with a porous, honeycombed interior. Throughout the honeycomb, conditions vary: Some areas are warmer, some cooler; some are oxygen-rich, others oxygen-starved — and the dozen or so cell types each have their own preferred spots. To add complexity, bone marrow cells communicate with each other by secreting and sensing a variety of biomolecules, which act locally to tell them whether to live, die, specialize or multiply.

Rather than trying to reproduce such a complex structure cell by cell, the researchers enlisted mice to do it."We figured, why not allow Mother Nature to help us build what she already knows how to build," said Catherine S. Spina, an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate at Boston University, researcher at the Wyss Institute, and co-lead author of the paper.

Specifically, Wyss Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Yu-suke Torisawa and Spina packed dried bone powder into an open, ring-shaped mold the size of a coin battery, and implanted the mold under the skin on the animal's back.

After eight weeks, they surgically removed the disk-shaped bone that had formed in the mold and examined it with a specialized CAT scanner. The scan showed a honeycomb-like structure that looked identical to natural trabecular bone.

The marrow looked like the real thing as well. When they stained the tissue and examined it under a microscope, the marrow was packed with blood cells, just like marrow from a living mouse. And when the researchers sorted the bone marrow cells by type and tallied their numbers, the mix of different types of blood and immune cells in the engineered bone marrow was identical to that in a mouse thighbone.

To sustain the engineered bone marrow outside of a living animal, the researchers surgically removed the engineered bone from mice, then placed it in a microfluidic device that steadily supplied nutrients and removed waste to mimic the circulation the tissue would experience in the body.

Marrow in the device remained healthy for up to one week — long enough, typically, to test the toxicity and effectiveness of a new drug.

The device also passed an initial test of its drug-testing capabilities. Like marrow from live mice, this engineered marrow was also susceptible to radiation — but an FDA-approved drug that protects irradiated patients also protects the marrow on the chip.

In the future, the researchers could potentially grow human bone marrow in immune-deficient mice. "This could be developed into an easy-to-use screening-based system that's personalized for individual patients," said coauthor James Collins, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and the William F. Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University, where he leads the Center of Synthetic Biology.


SOURCE  Wyss Institute

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 Bioengineering  

Using nature as a guide, researchers from Harvard University have found that a new class of artificial intelligence algorithms may be conducted using chemical reactions.  The theory could open up a new way of producing smart drugs and molecular machines.

Computer scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have joined forces to put powerful artificial intelligence reasoning algorithms in the hands of bioengineers.

Ryan P. Adams and Nils Napp presented a paper at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference,  demonstrating that an important class of artificial intelligence algorithms could be implemented using chemical reactions.

These algorithms, which use a technique called "message passing inference on factor graphs," are a mathematical coupling of ideas from graph theory and probability. They represent the state of the art in machine learning and are already critical components of everyday tools ranging from search engines and fraud detection to error correction in mobile phones.

Adams' and Napp's work demonstrates that some aspects of AI could be implemented at microscopic scales using molecules. In the long term, the researchers say, such theoretical developments could open the door for "smart drugs" that can automatically detect, diagnose, and treat a variety of diseases using a cocktail of chemicals that can perform AI-type reasoning.

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"We understand a lot about building AI systems that can learn and adapt at macroscopic scales; these algorithms live behind the scenes in many of the devices we interact with every day," says Adams, an assistant professor of computer science at SEAS whose Intelligent Probabilistic Systems group focuses on machine learning and computational statistics.

"This work shows that it is possible to also build intelligent machines at tiny scales, without needing anything that looks like a regular computer. This kind of chemical-based AI will be necessary for constructing therapies that sense and adapt to their environment. The hope is to eventually have drugs that can specialize themselves to your personal chemistry and can diagnose or treat a range of pathologies."

Adams and Napp designed a tool that can take probabilistic representations of unknowns in the world (probabilistic graphical models, in the language of machine learning) and compile them into a set of chemical reactions that estimate quantities that cannot be observed directly. The key insight is that the dynamics of chemical reactions map directly onto the two types of computational steps that computer scientists would normally perform in silico to achieve the same end.

Just like robots, biological cells must estimate external environmental states and act on them; designing artificial systems that perform these tasks could give scientists a better understanding of how such problems might be solved on a molecular level inside living systems.

"There is much ongoing research to develop chemical computational devices," says Napp, a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute, working on the Bioinspired Robotics platform, and a member of the Self-organizing Systems Research group at SEAS. Both groups are led by Radhika Nagpal, the Fred Kavli Professor of Computer Science at SEAS and a Wyss core faculty member. At the Wyss Institute, a portion of Napp's research involves developing new types of robotic devices that move and adapt like living creatures.

"What makes this project different is that, instead of aiming for general computation, we focused on efficiently translating particular algorithms that have been successful at solving difficult problems in areas like robotics into molecular descriptions," Napp explains. "For example, these algorithms allow today's robots to make complex decisions and reliably use noisy sensors. It is really exciting to think about what these tools might be able to do for building better molecular machines."

Indeed, the field of machine learning is revolutionizing many areas of science and engineering. The ability to extract useful insights from vast amounts of weak and incomplete information is not only fueling the current interest in "big data," but has also enabled rapid progress in more traditional disciplines such as computer vision, estimation, and robotics, where data are available but difficult to interpret. Bioengineers often face similar challenges, as many molecular pathways are still poorly characterized and available data are corrupted by random noise.

"Probabilistic graphical models are particularly efficient tools for computing estimates of unobserved phenomena," says Adams. "It's very exciting to find that these tools map so well to the world of cell biology."


SOURCE  Phys.Org

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 Genetic Engineering  

Two parallel projects at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have created new genomes inside the bacterium E. coli in ways that test the limits of genetic reprogramming and open new possibilities for increasing flexibility, productivity. and safety in biotechnology.

In two parallel projects, researchers have created new genomes inside the bacterium E. coli in ways that test the limits of genetic reprogramming, opening new possibilities for increasing flexibility, productivity and safety in biotechnology.

In one project, researchers created a novel genome—the first-ever entirely genomically recoded organism—by replacing all 321 instances of a specific “genetic three-letter word,” called a codon, throughout the organism’s entire genome with a word of supposedly identical meaning. The researchers then reintroduced a reprogrammed version of the original word (with a new meaning, a new amino acid) into the bacteria, expanding the bacterium’s vocabulary and allowing it to produce proteins that do not normally occur in nature.

In the second project, the researchers removed every occurrence of 13 different codons across 42 separate E. coli genes, using a different organism for each gene, and replaced them with other codons of the same function. When they were done, 24 percent of the DNA across the 42 targeted genes had been changed, yet the proteins the genes produced remained identical to those produced by the original genes.

“The first project is saying that we can take one codon, completely remove it from the genome, then successfully reassign its function,” said Marc Lajoie, a Harvard Medical School graduate student in the lab of George Church. “For the second project we asked, ‘OK, we've changed this one codon, how many others can we change?’”

Of the 13 codons chosen for the project, all could be changed.

“That leaves open the possibility that we could potentially replace any or all of those 13 codons throughout the entire genome,” Lajoie said.

The results of these two projects appearred recently in the journal Science. The work was led by Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and founding core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Farren Isaacs, assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale School of Medicine, is co-senior author on the first study.

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Recoded genomes can confer protection against viruses—which limit productivity in the biotech industry—and help prevent the spread of potentially dangerous genetically engineered traits to wild organisms.

“In science we talk a lot about the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of things, but in this case, the ‘why’ is very important,” Church, author of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves said, explaining how this project is part of an ongoing effort to improve the safety, productivity and flexibility of biotechnology.

“These results might also open a whole new chemical toolbox for biotech production,” said Isaacs. “For example, adding durable polymers to a therapeutic molecule could allow it to function longer in the human bloodstream.”

But to have such an impact, the researchers said, large swaths of the genome need to be changed all at once.

“If we make a few changes that make the microbe a little more resistant to a virus, the virus is going to compensate. It becomes a back and forth battle,” Church said. “But if we take the microbe offline and make a whole bunch of changes, when we bring it back and show it to the virus, the virus is going to say ‘I give up.’ No amount of diversity in any reasonable natural virus population is going to be enough to compensate for this wildly new genome.”

In the first study, with just a single codon removed, the genomically recoded organism showed increased resistance to viral infection. With several additional codons reassigned, a “wildly new genome” would make it impossible for engineered genes to escape into wild populations, Church said, because they would be incompatible with natural genomes. This could be of considerable benefit with strains engineered for drug or pesticide resistance, for example. What’s more, incorporating rare, non-standard amino acids could ensure strains only survive in a laboratory environment.

Since a single genetic flaw can spell death for an organism, the challenge of managing a series of hundreds of specific changes was daunting, the researchers said. In both projects, the researchers paid particular attention to developing a methodical approach to planning and implementing changes and troubleshooting the results.

“We wanted to develop the ability to efficiently build the desired genome and to very quickly identify any problems—from design flaws or from undesired mutations — and develop workarounds,” Lajoie said.

The team relied on number of technologies developed in the Church lab and the Wyss Institute and with partners in academia and industry, including next-generation sequencing tools, DNA synthesis on a chip, and MAGE and CAGE genome editing methods. But one of the most important tools they used was the power of natural selection, the researchers added.

“When an engineering team designs a new cellphone, it’s a huge investment of time and money. They really want that cell phone to work,” Church said. “With E. coli we can make a few billion prototypes with many different genomes, and let the best strain win. That’s the awesome power of evolution.”



SOURCE  Harvard Medical School

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 Future of Agriculture  

A major new synthetic biology technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world's crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilizers.

Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is converted to ammonia, is vital for plants to survive and grow.

However, only a very small number of plants, most notably legumes (such as peas, beans and lentils) have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria. The vast majority of plants have to obtain nitrogen from the soil, and for most crops currently being grown across the world, this also means a reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

Professor Edward Cocking, Director of The University of Nottingham's Centre for Crop Nitrogen Fixation, has developed a unique method of putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. His major breakthrough came when he found a specific strain of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in sugar-cane which he discovered could intracellularly colonise all major crop plants.

 The discovery will "transform global food security," says its developer.

This ground-breaking development potentially provides every cell in the plant with the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The implications for agriculture are enormous as this new technology can provide much of the plant's nitrogen needs.

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A leading world expert in nitrogen and plant science, Professor Cocking has long recognised that there is a critical need to reduce nitrogen pollution caused by nitrogen based fertilisers. Nitrate pollution is a major problem as is also the pollution of the atmosphere by ammonia and oxides of nitrogen.

In addition, nitrate pollution is a health hazard and also causes oxygen-depleted 'dead zones' in our waterways and oceans. A recent study estimates that that the annual cost of damage caused by nitrogen pollution across Europe is £60 billion -- £280 billion a year.

Speaking about the technology, which is known as 'N-Fix', Professor Cocking said: "Helping plants to naturally obtain the nitrogen they need is a key aspect of World Food Security. The world needs to unhook itself from its ever increasing reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilisers produced from fossil fuels with its high economic costs, its pollution of the environment and its high energy costs."

N-Fix is neither genetic modification nor bio-engineering. It is a naturally occurring nitrogen fixing bacteria which takes up and uses nitrogen from the air. Applied to the cells of plants (intra-cellular) via the seed, it provides every cell in the plant with the ability to fix nitrogen. Plant seeds are coated with these bacteria in order to create a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship and naturally produce nitrogen.

N-Fix is a natural nitrogen seed coating that provides a sustainable solution to fertiliser overuse and Nitrogen pollution. It is environmentally friendly and can be applied to all crops. Over the last 10 years, The University of Nottingham has conducted a series of extensive research programmes which have established proof of principal of the technology in the laboratory, growth rooms and glasshouses.

The University of Nottingham's Plant and Crop Sciences Division is internationally acclaimed as a centre for fundamental and applied research, underpinning its understanding of agriculture, food production and quality, and the natural environment. It also has one of the largest communities of plant scientists in the UK.

Dr Susan Huxtable, Director of Intellectual Property Commercialisation at The University of Nottingham, believes that the N-Fix technology has significant implications for agriculture, she said: "There is a substantial global market for the N-Fix technology, as it can be applied globally to all crops. N-Fix has the power to transform agriculture, while at the same time offering a significant cost benefit to the grower through the savings that they will make in the reduced costs of fertilizers. It is a great example of how University research can have a world-changing impact." The N-Fix technology has been licensed by The University of Nottingham to Azotic Technologies Ltd to develop and commercialize N-Fix globally on its behalf for all crop species.

The proof of concept has already been demonstrated. The uptake and fixation of nitrogen in a range of crop species has been proven to work in the laboratory and Azotic is now working on field trials in order to produce robust efficacy data. This will be followed by seeking regulatory approval for N-Fix initially in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Brazil, with more countries to follow.

It is anticipated that the N-Fix technology will be commercially available within the next two to three years.



SOURCE  University of Nottingham

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