20.20(S10):Advanced topics

20.385: Advanced Topics in Synthetic Biology

Assignments

Homework dropbox is here

Part 1: Readings Paper 1 (10%): presented with a partner Paper 2 (15%): presented solo Response record (25%): your thoughts about the papers you don't present. Instructions for these assignment are here

Part 2: Team Mentoring Progress reports (15%): one page summaries of your freshman team's work Mentoring journal(15%): one page summary of your freshman team's dynamics Team's project average (15%): based on the grade for the 3 major assignments submitted by your freshman team Instructor Leverage (5%): discretionary adjustment by NK Instructions for these assignments are here

Reading Schedule

Discussions will be 1 hour long during Wednesday 2-5 studio block

26-152

TOPIC	DATE	Discussion leader(s)	Discussion paper(s)	Related paper(s) to enjoy
Preview of 20.385	Wed Feb 3	Natalie Kuldell Ron Weiss		before next week read Sci Am summary (handout) Two ‘What if” experiments Ptashne, M. PMID: 15055587 Build Artificial Brent, R. PMID: 15055588
Parts™	Wed Feb 10	Natalie Kuldell Ron Weiss	A eukaryotic transcriptional activator bearing the DNA specificity of a prokaryotic repressor. Brent R, Ptashne M.Cell. 1985 Dec;43(3 Pt 2):729-36. PMID: 3907859	Activation of prokaryotic transcription through arbitrary protein-protein contacts Dove SL, et al. Nature. 1997 Apr 10;386(6625):627-30. PMID: 9121589
Logic Modules	Wed Feb 17 (RW OoT)		Environmental signal integration by a modular AND gate. Anderson JC, Voigt C, Arkin, AP Molecular systems biology3 133 2007 DOI : 10.1038/msb4100173	A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators. Elowitz, MB, and Leibler, S. Nature 403, 335–338 (2000) Construction of a genetic toggle switch in Escherichia coli Gardner TS, et al.Nature 403, 339–342 (2000) May also want non-DNA, non-protein based logic paper (RNAi logic?)
Signal Specificity	Wed Feb 24		Rewiring the specificity of two-component signal transduction systems. Skerker JM, et al. Cell (2008)133(6):1043-54. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.04.040	Synthetic biology: engineering Escherichia coli to see light. Levskaya A, et al. PMID: 16306980
Controlling System Dynamics	Wed Mar 3 (RW OoT)		Using Engineered Scaffold Interactions to Reshape MAP Kinase Pathway Signaling Dynamics Bashor CJ, et al. Science (2008)319: 1539-1543 DOI: 10.1126/science.1151153	Synthetic protein scaffolds provide modular control over metabolic flux. Dueber JE, et al. PMID: 19648908
Functional Network Composition	Thursday Mar 11		Diversity-based, model-guided construction of synthetic gene networks with predicted functions Ellis T, Wang X, and Collins JJ. Nat Biotech	A synthetic genetic edge detection program Tabor JJ et al. PMID: 19563759
Tuning the system: directed evolution	Wed Mar 17		A fast, robust and tunable synthetic gene oscillator Stricker, J. et al. Nature 456, 516–519 (2008).	Directed evolution of a genetic circuit Yokobayashi, Y, et al.Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 99, 16587–16591 (2002).
Spring Break Mar 22-26			No class all week
DNA construction and editing technologies	Wed Mar 31		Article 1: Programming cells by multiplex genome engineering and accelerated evolution. Wang HH, et al. Nature 2009 Aug 13;460(7257):894-8. Article 2: Complete chemical synthesis, assembly, and cloning of a Mycoplasma genitalium genome.Gibson DG, et al. Science. 2008 Feb 29;319(5867):1215-20. PMID: 18218864	Stemmer WP, et al. Single-step assembly of a gene and entire plasmid from large numbers of oligodeoxyribonucleotides. PMID: 7590320
Chassis	Thursday Apr 8		Article 1: Towards synthesis of a minimal cell Forster, A. C. & Church, G. M. Mol. Syst. Biol. 2, 45 (2006) alternative Article 1? Emergent properties of reduced-genome Escherichia coli. Pósfai G, et al. Science.(2006)312(5776):1044-6. PMID: 16645050 Article 2: Genome transplantation in bacteria: changing one species to another. Lartigue C, et al. Science 2007, 317:632-638.	Reconstitution of contractile FtsZ rings in liposomes. Osawa M, Anderson DE, Erickson HP.Science (2008)320(5877):792-4. DOI: 10.1126/science.1154520
In silico and -omics	Wed Apr 14		'Article 1: Design of genetic networks with specified functions by evolution in silico Francois, P. & Hakim, V. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 580–585 (2004). Article 2:'Engineering transcription factors with novel DNA-binding specificity using comparative genomics Desai TA, et al. Nucleic Acids Res 2009	Design of multi-specificity in protein interfacesHumphris, EL; Kortemme, T. PLoS computational biology (2007) 3(8):e164 DOI : 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030164
Noise	Wed Apr 21		Article 1: Gene regulation at the single-cell level Rosenfeld N, et al. Science 307, 1962–1965 (2005). Article 2: Stochastic switching as a survival strategy in fluctuating environments. Acar M. et al. Nature Genetics 40, 471 – 475 (2008)	Phenotypic consequences of promoter-mediated transcriptional noise. Blake WJ, et al. Molecular Cell(2006) 24(6):853-65 DOI : 10.1016/j.molcel.2006.11.003
Metabolic Engineering	Wed Apr 28		Article 1: Production of the antimalarial drug precursor artemisinic acid in engineered yeast Ro, D. K. et al. Nature 440, 940–943 (2006). Article 2: Synthesis of methyl halides from biomass using engineered microbes. Bayer TS, et al. J Am Chem Soc 2009, 131:6508-6515.
Cell Cell Communication/System Ecology	Tue May 4		Article 1: A synthetic Escherichia coli predator-prey ecosystem Balagaddé FK, et al. Mol Syst Biol. 2008;4:187. PMID: 18414488 Article 2: Synthetic ecosystems based on airborne inter- and intrakingdom communication. Weber, W., Daoud-El Baba, M. & Fussenegger, M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 10435–10440 (2007).	Synthetic cooperation in engineered yeast populations Shou W, Ram S, Vilar JM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Feb 6;104(6):1877-82.
Property rights in synthetic biology	Tue May 11?		Article 1: Synthetic biology: caught between property rights, the public domain, and the commons Rai A, Boyle J. PLoS Biol. (2007)5(3):e58 PMID: 17355173	Article 2: Patents and Translational Research in GenomicsKaye J, Hawkins N, and Taylor J. Nature Biotech (2007) 25(7): 739–741.doi: 10.1038/nbt0707-739.
Safety!	Tue May 11?		Article 1: Managing the unimaginable. Regulatory responses to the challenges posed by synthetic biology and synthetic genomics. Samuel GN, Selgelid MJ, Kerridge I. EMBO reports (2009) 10(1):7-11. DOI: 10.1038/embor.2008.232	Article 2: Darwin’s Surprise: Why are evolutionary biologists bringing back extinct deadly viruses? Michael Specter New Yorker article
Programming Languages	Tue May 11?		Article 1: Towards programming languages for genetic engineering of living cells Pedersen M, Phillips A J R Soc Interface 2009, 6(Suppl 4):S437-S450.	Article 2: Cells Are Plausible Targets for High-Level Spatial Languages Jacob Beal and Jonathan Bachrach, Spatial Computing Workshop, October 2008.
Molecular and Cellular Computing	Tue May 11?		Article 1: An autonomous molecular computer for logical control of gene expressionBenenson Y, et al. Nature 2004 May 27;429(6990):423-9. Epub 2004 Apr 28.	Article 2: Engineering bacteria to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem Haynes KA, et al. J Biol Eng. 2008 May 20;2:8.