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{Reeve:2016:10.1021/acssynbio.5b00298,
author = {Reeve, B and Martinez, Klimova E and de, Jonghe J and Leak, DJ and Ellis, T},
doi = {10.1021/acssynbio.5b00298},
journal = {ACS Synthetic Biology},
pages = {1342--1347},
title = {The Geobacillus plasmid set: a modular toolkit for thermophile engineering},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00298},
volume = {5},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius is agram-positive thermophile of industrial interest thatexhibits rapid growth and can utilize a variety ofplant-derived feedstocks. It is an attractive chassisorganism for high temperature biotechnology andsynthetic biology applications but is currently limitedby a lack of available genetic tools. Here we describea set of modular shuttle vectors, including apromoter library and reporter proteins. The compactplasmids are composed of interchangeable modulesfor molecular cloning in Escherichia coli and stablepropagation in G. thermoglucosidasius and otherGeobacillus species. Modules include two origins ofreplication, two selectable markers and three reporterproteins for characterization of gene expression.For fine-tuning heterologous expression from theseplasmids, we include a characterized promoter libraryand test ribosome binding site design. Together,these gene expression tools and a standardizedplasmid set can facilitate modularity and part exchangeto make Geobacillus a thermophile chassis forsynthetic biology.
AU  - Reeve,B
AU  - Martinez,Klimova E
AU  - de,Jonghe J
AU  - Leak,DJ
AU  - Ellis,T
DO  - 10.1021/acssynbio.5b00298
EP  - 1347
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 2161-5063
SP  - 1342
TI  - The Geobacillus plasmid set: a modular toolkit for thermophile engineering
T2  - ACS Synthetic Biology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00298
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/33966
VL  - 5
ER  -
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