With seed money from the National Science Foundation (NSF), SynBERC bioengineers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University are ramping up efforts to characterize the thousands of control elements critical to the engineering of microbes, so that eventually researchers can mix and match these "DNA parts" in synthetic organisms to produce new drugs, fuels or chemicals.

SynBERC investigator Chris Voigt and a group of graduate students from his lab took a leap forward in the pursuit of chemicals derived not from petroleum but from renewable sources. The chemical target was methyl halides, a chemical precursor to several high-value chemicals, and which the oil industry already knows how to derive gasoline from.

Work is beginning on an industry-inspired testbed that aims to construct an advanced fermentation organism. Led by Chris Voigt, the new testbed aims to apply research from the SynBERC thrusts (parts, devices, chassis) to the construction of a “smart” strain that can be programmed to sense and respond to conditions encountered during a fermentation. The focus will be on the construction of a generic system that is applicable to many potential pathways. E. coli has been chosen as the model system because of the availability of platform parts/devices and genome replacement tools.

SynBERC investigator Chris Voigt and a group of graduate students from his lab took a leap forward in the pursuit of chemicals derived not from petroleum but from renewable sources. The chemical target was methyl halides, a chemical precursor to several high-value chemicals, and which the oil industry already knows how to derive gasoline from.

Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE), the Church lab’s new cell programming method that promises to give biotechnology – in particular synthetic biology – a powerful boost, made its public debut in the July issue of Nature.

The various devices constructed from well-characterized standard biological parts can be integrated to form systems. A system, when comprised within a chassis, will then form an organism capable of performing specified functions. Testbeds, through their need for parts and devices integrated into a chassis, will help drive development of the thrusts. SynBERC currently has two testbeds:

The goal of our research program is to develop the foundational understanding and technologies that will allow us to routinely build large numbers of useful biological systems from standard interchangeable parts. Our specific aims are:

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells or the redesign of existing biological systems. Synthetic biology builds on the advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology and seeks to transform biology in the same way that synthesis transformed chemistry and integrated circuit design transformed computing.