SynBERC:Seminar series/Steve Benner

Synthetic Biology from Molecules Up: Applications to the Needs of Systems Biologists

Dr. Steve Benner, Director of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution

Time: 4:00pm, Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

Location: Warren Alpert Building, Room 341, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Benner is a pioneer in synthetic biology, chemical genetics, evolutionary bioinformatics, and paleomolecular genetics. He is leading scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) in a variety of multidisciplinary research in fields as diverse as chemistry, informatics, biology, geology, and astronomy to place biological chemistry within its larger "systems" context, from the cell to the organism, and from there to the ecosystem and the planet. Emerging from their work are new tools for systems biology and personalized medicine, as well as answers to some "big" questions: Where did we come from? What is our future? Are we alone? Team FfAME has recently entered the competition for the $10 million dollar Archon X PRIZE for Genomics; the objective is to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days.

Contact: Harris Wang (hhwang AT fas.harvard.edu)