Synthetic biology is an emerging research and industrial field aiming at designing and engineering biological systems with specific functions. To do that, it integrates methods and technologies from biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science and mathematics to streamline the process of designing, building and testing biological systems. In the last 10 years, synthetic biology has contributed many ground breaking scientific results, including the first synthetic cell and the first synthetic chromosomes, and industrial applications, including the production of drugs and biofuels.

The Essex Synthetic Biology School (ESBS) is an intensive 5-day summer course targeting students and early career scientists interested in learning cutting edge experimental and computational methods to design and build biological systems directly from world-renowned experts, working with bacterial, yeast, plant and mammalian systems, in fields such as cancer and healthcare research, as well as industrial, agricultural and environmental synthetic biology.

The School is structured in 20 lectures and 5 laboratory sessions.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions for poster presentation are accepted in any area of synthetic biology.

To be considered, you should submit an abstract by 15th April 2018 through EasyChair.

Topics

• Combinatorial assembly of biological pathways
• Synthetic genomics
• Exogenous pathways synthesis
• Biosensors
• Biological systems modelling
• Biological data analysis
• Computer aided design
• Automation
• Mathematical modelling of biological systems

Invited Speakers

• Jef D. Boeke, New York University, USA
• Paul Freemont, Imperial College London, UK
• Adrian Harris, University of Oxford, UK
• Ross Kettleborough, Twist Bioscience, UK
• Victor de Lorenzo, CNB Madrid, Spain
• Leslie Mitchell, New York University, USA
• Nicola Patron, Earlham Institute, UK
• Toby Richardson, Synthetic Genomics Inc., USA
• Susan Rosser, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Howard Salis, Penn State University, USA
• Danielle Tullman-Ercek, Northwestern University, USA
• Ron Weiss, MIT, USA

Lab sessions

You will learn how to build transcription units (Promoter-CDS-Terminator) by Golden Gate that will be transformed in yeast. You will then perform a screening to select constructs that maximise gene expression.

Venue

The University of Essex is located at the Wivenhoe Park, a striking landscape of more than 200 acres  immortalised in oils by world-famous painter John Constable.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to g.stracquadanio <at> essex.ac.uk.