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{Kelly:2018:10.1021/acssynbio.7b00435,
author = {Kelly, CL and Taylor, GM and Hitchcock, A and Torres-Méndez, A and Heap, JT},
doi = {10.1021/acssynbio.7b00435},
journal = {ACS Synth Biol},
pages = {1056--1066},
title = {A Rhamnose-Inducible System for Precise and Temporal Control of Gene Expression in Cyanobacteria.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.7b00435},
volume = {7},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Cyanobacteria are important for fundamental studies of photosynthesis and have great biotechnological potential. In order to better study and fully exploit these organisms, the limited repertoire of genetic tools and parts must be expanded. A small number of inducible promoters have been used in cyanobacteria, allowing dynamic external control of gene expression through the addition of specific inducer molecules. However, the inducible promoters used to date suffer from various drawbacks including toxicity of inducers, leaky expression in the absence of inducer and inducer photolability, the latter being particularly relevant to cyanobacteria, which, as photoautotrophs, are grown under light. Here we introduce the rhamnose-inducible rhaBAD promoter of Escherichia coli into the model freshwater cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and demonstrate it has superior properties to previously reported cyanobacterial inducible promoter systems, such as a non-toxic, photostable, non-metabolizable inducer, a linear response to inducer concentration and crucially no basal transcription in the absence of inducer.
AU  - Kelly,CL
AU  - Taylor,GM
AU  - Hitchcock,A
AU  - Torres-Méndez,A
AU  - Heap,JT
DO  - 10.1021/acssynbio.7b00435
EP  - 1066
PY  - 2018///
SP  - 1056
TI  - A Rhamnose-Inducible System for Precise and Temporal Control of Gene Expression in Cyanobacteria.
T2  - ACS Synth Biol
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.7b00435
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29544054
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/58410
VL  - 7
ER  -
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