NEWS

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) Research Laboratory is sponsoring a $1 million challenge for synthetic biology solutions to reduce the cost and improve the quality for aerospace thermosets. The challenge is focused on the use of biotechnology to create products or product precursors required by USAF. Interested parties must submit white papers on the viability … Read more

Earlier this year, the U.S. Government (USG) announced it will launch a competition for its ninth Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) led by the Department of Defense (DoD). The technical focus area for this Institute will be Synthetic Biology. Funding will be commensurate with the other DoD MIIs with similar expectations for cost-share from non-Federal sources … Read more

The emergence and spread of the COVID-19, which was declared a Public Health Emergency in the United States on January 31, 2020, has catalyzed significant activity by Federal, state, and local governments; the healthcare community; residents across the United States; and people around the world. The National Biodefense Strategy is the nation’s plan for ensuring … Read more

Assessed in January of each year, the Doomsday Clock is a symbol representation of the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe. Maintained since 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Clock is considered a measure for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technical advances. The Clock represents the hypothetical … Read more

Synthetic biology is an emerging field of science, biology and engineering that defies a simple definition. It is a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities. Synthetic biology researchers and companies around the world are harnessing the power of nature to solve problems in medicine, … Read more

The rapid advances over the past few decades in biotechnologies involving somatic cells and gene therapy offer a great potential in regenerative medicine and for the treatment of genetic defects. These advances require an understanding of scientific principles as well as ethical and societal implications before these technologies can be clinically applicable. Somatic Nuclear Transfer … Read more

Last year, leaders from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote about America’s leadership in the area of synthetic biology. Here is what they said: Scientific advances in biotechnology, such as genome editing and synthetic biology, hold enormous potential to improve human and animal health, animal welfare, and food security. And researchers and companies based … Read more

Imagine storing digital data in DNA, wearing a device that makes you smarter or creating new materials using synthetic biology by manipulating the genes of microbes. These ideas may sound like science fiction, but scientists are working on technologies that combine what they know about biology and altering it with the help of artificial intelligence. … Read more

George McDonald Church is an American-born geneticist, molecular engineer, and chemist. He is currently the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. As of March 2017, Church serves as a member … Read more