The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

Andrew Hessel’s Singularity University Talk on Synthetic Biology (Video)

No Comments

by Aaron Saenz on November 17th, 2009
Want to tinker with DNA? Andrew Hessel is the guy who can explain how and why.

Want to tinker with DNA? Andrew Hessel is the guy who can explain how and why.

Have you ever wished life was more like a video game? Well, Andrew Hessel is here to tell you that your biology is already more like a computer than you know. At his recent talk at Singularity University the genetic engineering guru explained how biology was set to become the next information technology. Hessel is a veteran of the biotech industry, an advocate for open source technology, and one of the founders of the biology wiki, OpenWetWare. His presentation at Singularity University starts from scratch, describing the basics of synthetic bio and explaining how we could one day have “push button biology” – you design an organism, push a button, and out it comes. Check out the video presentation of “Hacking Genomes and Synthetic Biology” in full after the break.

Hessel is a big proponent of open source technology, which you can see in his founding of OpenWetWare, his support of DIYbio, and his ongoing interest and support of iGEM and MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts. The man wants you to be interested and open to the possibilities that hacking DNA will provide. Synthetic biology, the engineering of life on the genetic level, could be the definitive technology of the 21st century. Educational genetic engineering (like iGEM) is beginning to filter into the high school level and Hessel believes that a time is coming soon when everyone could have access to the power and creative freedom of synthetic biology. When? Everyone has a different idea about the timing of the coming paradigm shift, but Hessel targets genetic sequencing as a key ingredient. When you can sequence 10 million base pairs in an hour for $100, he thinks that the genetic revolution will begin. That’s the point when it will become cheap enough for almost anyone to start programming with DNA.

Read More

OpenWetWare – The Wikipedia of Biology

1 Comment

by Aaron Saenz on October 19th, 2009

openwetwareDepending on who you ask wikis are either the distilled divinity collected from humanity or the online equivalent of mob violence. By definition, wikis are simply a tool by which multiple users can build and edit webpages on a website, but in their application they have promise to be much more. Since 2005, OpenWetWare has served as a hub for all manner of biological information. It is a reference source containing information on materials, protocols for biological experiments, schematics, and experimental results. There are nearly 7000 users from all over the globe, most of them research scientists, editing 13,000+ pages of content. OpenWetWare has the potential to become the more reliable, biologically minded cousin to Wikipedia and I’m very impressed with it.

In the traditional model of scientific progress, researchers share information through two channels: published research and discussions at conferences. Six to twelve months could pass before one scientist learns about the discoveries made by another. OpenWetWare is a precursor to Science 2.0, a new paradigm wherein research learns some of the lessons of open source computer programming. By sharing information quickly online, scientists could reduce the duplication of work, create a quicker dialogue between teams, and develop dynamic and productive collaborations. In other words, the democratic dissemination of information would increase the efficiency of the scientific community, accelerating the rate at which the world benefits from their discoveries.
Read More

iGEM 2009: Synthetic Biology Competition Bigger than Ever this Halloween

7 Comments

by Aaron Saenz on September 24th, 2009

igem-2009Like some Frankenstein monster composed of space camp, graduate school, and science fair, iGEM is ready to spring to life this Halloween. The International Genetic Engineering Machine competition is now in its 6th iteration and will feature some of the best undergraduate work in synthetic biology the world has ever seen. The main jamboree from Oct 31st to Nov 2nd will allow the more than 110 teams competing to reveal the successes and failures from their summer long foray into the laboratory. As always, iGEM is hosted by MIT and the public is invited to attend the awards ceremony on Sunday November 1st at 8am. If you’re in the Boston area, you definitely want to go. Last year’s winners included bacteria that could produce electricity, e.coli that could hunt and kill other pathogens, and yeast that could give beer high levels of resveratrol.

Synthetic biology has been called the science of the 21st century. Rewriting the genetic information of micro organisms can allow scientists to create new genetic machines that can perform extraordinary tasks. You remember MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts we discussed? iGEM teams are given access to that database in order to come up with useful, interesting, or just plain cool genetic machines for the competition. MIT is allowing these undergraduates access to some of the most advanced synthetic biology tools of today in the hopes of developing students into the best genetic engineers of tomorrow. That’s exciting stuff.

Read More

MIT is Organizing New Genetic Parts

8 Comments

by Aaron Saenz on July 22nd, 2009

If you want to check out a book you go to the library. If you want to get a copy of the latest DNA, you go to MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Started in 2003, the Registry has developed from a few stored genes to a collection of more than 3000 genetic parts that can be spliced into DNA to modify an existing organism. Need your bacteria to glow in the dark? Want yeast to produce a banana smell? The Registry might have what you need. It’s a candy shop for synthetic biologists and it’s changing what genetic engineering can accomplish.

MIT is helping synthetic biologists by providing the Registry of Standard biological Parts.

MIT is helping synthetic biologists by providing the Registry of Standard biological Parts.

While there are some costs associated with getting genes from the Registry, it’s not really a store. The registered segments of DNA are stored and shipped on a looser “get some, give some” exchange. Those users who request and utilize these biological parts are expected to share some of their results and innovations with everyone else. Sort of the biological equivalent of the take-a-penny-leave-a-penny tray at the corner store.

Before you start sending your genetic requests to MIT, I should point out that the Registry is for established scientists only. Do-it-yourself biologists need not apply. Most of those who receive parts are from academic labs, and/or forming a team to participate in iGEM, MIT’s annual genetic engineering competition. Still, the wide range of users gives this registry a scope that promises to catapult synthetic biology into its next phase of evolution.

Read More