Research

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Synthetic Biology underpins advances in the bioeconomy

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology. 

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Kopniczky:2020:10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437,
author = {Kopniczky, MB and Canavan, C and McClymont, DW and Crone, MA and Suckling, L and Goetzmann, B and Siciliano, V and MacDonald, JT and Jensen, K and Freemont, PS},
doi = {10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437},
journal = {ACS Synthetic Biology},
pages = {144--156},
title = {Cell-free protein synthesis as a prototyping platform for mammalian synthetic biology},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437},
volume = {9},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The field of mammalian synthetic biology is expanding quickly, and technologies for engineering large synthetic gene circuits are increasingly accessible. However, for mammalian cell engineering, traditional tissue culture methods are slow and cumbersome, and are not suited for high-throughput characterization measurements. Here we have utilized mammalian cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) assays using HeLa cell extracts and liquid handling automation as an alternative to tissue culture and flow cytometry-based measurements. Our CFPS assays take a few hours, and we have established optimized protocols for small-volume reactions using automated acoustic liquid handling technology. As a proof-of-concept, we characterized diverse types of genetic regulation in CFPS, including T7 constitutive promoter variants, internal ribosomal entry sites (IRES) constitutive translation-initiation sequence variants, CRISPR/dCas9-mediated transcription repression, and L7Ae-mediated translation repression. Our data shows simple regulatory elements for use in mammalian cells can be quickly prototyped in a CFPS model system.
AU  - Kopniczky,MB
AU  - Canavan,C
AU  - McClymont,DW
AU  - Crone,MA
AU  - Suckling,L
AU  - Goetzmann,B
AU  - Siciliano,V
AU  - MacDonald,JT
AU  - Jensen,K
AU  - Freemont,PS
DO  - 10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437
EP  - 156
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2161-5063
SP  - 144
TI  - Cell-free protein synthesis as a prototyping platform for mammalian synthetic biology
T2  - ACS Synthetic Biology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000508474400016&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00437
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/77915
VL  - 9
ER  -
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