Synthetic Biology

Making life better, one part at a time.

About Us

This site is sponsored & maintained by members of the MIT Synthetic Biology Working Group. Please see our FAQ if you've questions about what we do.

Current members are associated with the Endy Lab, the Knight Lab, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Department of Biology, the Biological Engineering Division, and the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at MIT.

MIT folks can add/remove themselves to the "synthbio" mailing list here.

Classes/Competitions

• iGEM competitions site -- 2005 iGEM MIT team
• 2004 Synthetic Biology Competition
• IAP 2004 class
• IAP 2003 and IAP 2004 projects

Projects

• The BioBricks Foundation
• Registry of Standard Biological Parts
• Synthetic Genomics Study
• Standard E. coli Strain for BioBricks
• Barcodes
• BioBrick Parts for Plasmid Engineering
• SortoStat
• Library-based Construction
• Receiver Definition
• Error Detection & Correction in Replicating Machines

Docs

• Technical Report 0: Idempotent Vector Design for Standard Assembly of BioBricks
• Technical Report 1: Biocomp Plasmid Distribution 1.00 of Standard Biobrick Components

• Draft 1: Regulatory Schemes in Biological Networks to Produce Desired Response and Stability. The genetic inverter: A computational case study
• Draft 2: Recombineering: Homologous Recombination-Mediated DNA Engineering in E. coli
• Draft 3: Electrical Models for Genetic Regulatory Elements
• Draft 4: Plasmid Engineering (pdf) (doc)

• A set of presentation slides from various talks by Drew Endy, many of which focus on the engineering of biology.

Conferences

• The First International Meeting on Synthetic Biology
• Synthetic Biology 2.0 is scheduled for May 20-22, 2006 at UC Berkeley.
  • Exact schedule and registration details still to be announced.
• Sixth International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB 2005)

News

• MIT, the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. announce a new study of the societal implications of synthetic genomics. Press releases: MIT, CSIS and Venter Institute.
  • Synthetic Genomics Study
• Synthetic Genomics, Inc. has been launched to develop new approaches to biological energy.
• Check out taqdot: News for the open source and synthetic biology community
• Codon Devices is founded to "pioneer the emerging field of synthetic biology."
• Old news links