In this section

Research

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{Broedel:2017:10.1016/j.copbio.2017.11.004,
author = {Broedel, AK and Isalan, M and Jaramillo, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.copbio.2017.11.004},
journal = {Current Opinion in Biotechnology},
pages = {32--38},
title = {Engineering of biomolecules by bacteriophage directed evolution},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2017.11.004},
volume = {51},
year = {2017}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Conventional in vivo directed evolution methods have primarily linked the biomolecule's activity to bacterial cell growth. Recent developments instead rely on the conditional growth of bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria. Here we review recent phage-based selection systems for in vivo directed evolution. These approaches have been applied to evolve a wide range of proteins including transcription factors, polymerases, proteases, DNA-binding proteins, and protein–protein interactions. Advances in this field expand the possible applications of protein and RNA engineering. This will ultimately result in new biomolecules with tailor-made properties, as well as giving us a better understanding of basic evolutionary processes.
AU  - Broedel,AK
AU  - Isalan,M
AU  - Jaramillo,A
DO  - 10.1016/j.copbio.2017.11.004
EP  - 38
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 0958-1669
SP  - 32
TI  - Engineering of biomolecules by bacteriophage directed evolution
T2  - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2017.11.004
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/54017
VL  - 51
ER  -