MIT Synbio

Working Page for the MIT Undergrads for Synthetic Biology

Current ideas / To-Do List:

1. Constitution and ASA Application

• Constitution In Progress
• ASA Application In Progress
• http://openwetware.org/wiki/MIT_DIYbio:Constitution_Ideas to see a few examples.

2. IAP Class MIT_Synbio:IAP

NOTE: A tentative list of materials and a brief description of our safety procedures can be found here.

NOTE: A tentative curriculum for our 2011 IAP class can be found here.

• General Structure
  • Concepts vs. actual lab work?
• Resources
  • From Natalie's Email:
    • The SynBERC student leadership council (Kevin Solomon in Kris Prather's lab is the point person, and Megan Palmer is the new Human Practices Assistant Director)
    • The SBWG, who seem to have a similar mission but aimed at slightly more trained folks (Steve Goldfless in Jacquin Niles lab is the point person)
    • The Registry/iGEM itself...I know they're looking for people to help with the competitions grand finale next year
    • The roll out of BioBuilder.org, which has a lot of the content you might want for teaching newcomers, though it's lab driven so unless you have a bench somewhere, it's tricky to fully implement
    • The SEED program, which runs a Saturday SynBio series in the spring. I'll bet they'd love to have some "special sessions" with you all
    • The COPUS group that has a strong hub here in Boston and has a number of members outside the MIT community interested in synthetic biology and trying to engage in it in many ways.
    • And finally there's OpenWetWare, which was initially launched as a place where the folks interested in this field could collaborate and share ideas. It's looking to be re-born into something useful to a new group of interested folks, so there's room there too.

3. TWO (2) Public Website on OpenWetWare (With Links and Stuff)

• Club Website: links to resources, our events, opportunities (iGEM, IAP class), officers, contact info, dates, and so on.
  • You are looking at version 0.01.
• General MIT iGEM website:
  • [A little more general than iGEM] [Check, TU-Delft style]

4. MIT Undergrads For Synthetic Biology

• Working title for our group. Other options include "MIT Synthetic (and Systems?) Biology Organization," "The Coalition of the Willing," etc.

5. Synbio Group Must Have A Clear Interest- Mission Statement

• Promoting the rational/safe use of synthetic (and systems?) biology to solve both academic and industrial problems.
• Promoting the dissemination of information about synthetic biology to keep the public interested and informed.
• [Depending on how much of a DIYBio flavor we want, we could also talk about doing these things in an open source / cheap way.]