SynBioWatch

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  • DNA construction technology makes genetic engineering cheaper, faster

    Cross-posted from: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-dna-technology-genetic-cheaper-faster.html#jCp  October 2, 2012 by Julie Chao  Sequencing, splicing and expressing DNA may seem to be the quintessence of cutting-edge science—indeed DNA manipulation has revolutionized fields such as biofuels, chemicals and medicine. But in fact, the actual process can still be tedious and labor-intensive, something Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientist Nathan Hillson […]

  • Richmond leaders to call on Chevron to join Berkeley lab in investing in city’s shoreline district

    By Robert Rogers, Contra Costa Times, Cross-posted from the San Jose Mercury-News   RICHMOND — Developers and business leaders have exhorted Chevron to expand operations in the city’s Marina Bay district, and now elected officials are set to join the chorus.   The City Council is expected on Tuesday to pass a resolution urging its largest taxpayer to […]

  • UN: ‘More should be done’ to prevent bio-terrorism

    Cross-posted from the BBC By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News, Cambridge A UN official delivered the warning at the BioDesign Forum on synthetic biology being held in the UK. Piers Millet from the UN’s Biological Weapons Convention said there was no global organisation to ensure biotech was not used for “nefarious” purposes. But international bodies did […]

  • Pentagon behind on predicting chemical, biological threats

    By Kevin Baron  Monday, September 24, 2012   Share Cross-posted from Foreign Policy   The Pentagon does not have a clear idea of how adversaries could misuse modern biotechnology and chemical advances, according to the Defense Department’s chief chemical and biological defense official. It turns out the Pentagon can move people faster than the speed of sound but not […]

  • Weird Science: The Promise and Peril of Synthetic Biology

    By Jeff Conant, from Earth Island Journal, Autumn, 2012 In 1971, a microbiologist named Ananda Chakrabarty patented a bacteria genetically engineered to degrade and destroy crude oil. The next year scientists created the first synthesized gene, a bit of yeast RNA ushered into existence virtually from scratch. These discoveries, among others, raised the curtain on the science of […]

  • The Rise And Fall Of The Company That Was Going To Have Us All Using Biofuels

    By Daniel Grushkin, cross-posted from Fast Company August 8, 2012 Amyris’s breakthroughs in bioengineering–and its plans to make biofuels from Brazilian sugarcane–promised to transform how the world’s businesses produce energy, cosmetics, and medicine. Then reality (and Wall Street) got in the way. Fields of Dreams: Sugarcane plantations next to Amyris’s Paraíso plant near São Paulo […]

  • Scorecard Chides Administration on Synthetic Bio Policy Follow-Up

    Cross-posted from GenEng News President Barack Obama’s administration has not fully addressed any of the recommendations made by its Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues a year and a half ago for improving the governance of synthetic biology research and development, a policy group asserted. The Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars acknowledged […]

  • Synthetic biology: ‘playing God’ is vital if we are to create a better future for all

    NOTE: The usually critical UK Guardian has a boxseat in the cheerleading section on synthetic biology, and has recently published another in a series of semi-misleading cheerleading pieces. We agree fully with the need for “engaged and rational public discussions,” on synthetic biology, as the article below calls for. But we don’t agree that the […]

  • Synthetic life: the revolution begins

    By Clive Cookson, from Financial Times Scientists could move from reading to writing genes as research to make microbes distinct from anything in nature is well underway Craig Venter, king of the genome, has been uncharacteristically quiet for a couple of years since his laboratory created the world’s first synthetic life form, a microbe whose genes […]

  • Roll Over, Rosie — Richmond moves into the modern age.

    By Paul Mindus, from the August 2012 Issue of The Monthly Say “Richmond” and many Bay Area residents think of crime, poverty, and the Iron Triangle—and maybe, on the upside, Rosie the Riveter. But the thousands of commuters who speed through Richmond daily on inter-states 580 or 80 may be unaware of some impressive developments over the […]