Courses that provide a pathway into synthetic biology:

Undergraduates on these courses also have the opportunity to undertake extended synthetic biology-based projects as part of their degrees. 

The Centre organises a course in synthetic biology which can be taken as part of degrees within life sciences and bioengineering (please refer to the box on the right). In this course, students will learn about the foundational technologies and theory behind engineering biology and real-world situations where synthetic biology is being applied right now. The course contains an introduction to the moral and ethical issues associated with synthetic biology, as well as practical sessions on experimental molecular biology and biological modelling.

The undergraduate course culminates with an exciting 'mini iGEM' project - a two week task to develop a synthetic biology idea and outline the design, modelling, experimental work and data analysis required to bring this to reality. The task ends with a round of presentations of the projects from the different student groups.

The course conveners for this option are Dr Geoff Baldwin (Life Sciences: g.baldwin@imperial.ac.uk) and Dr Tom Ellis (Bioengineering: t.ellis@imperial.ac.uk).