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{Chappell:2013:nar/gkt052,
author = {Chappell, J and Jensen, K and Freemont, PS},
doi = {nar/gkt052},
journal = {Nucleic Acids Research},
pages = {3471--3481},
title = {Validation of an entirely in vitro approach for rapid prototyping of DNA regulatory elements for synthetic biology},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt052},
volume = {41},
year = {2013}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - A bottleneck in our capacity to rationally and predictably engineer biological systems is the limited number of well-characterized genetic elements from which to build. Current characterization methods are tied to measurements in living systems, the transformation and culturing of which are inherently time-consuming. To address this, we have validated a completely in vitro approach for the characterization of DNA regulatory elements using Escherichia coli extract cell-free systems. Importantly, we demonstrate that characterization in cell-free systems correlates and is reflective of performance in vivo for the most frequently used DNA regulatory elements. Moreover, we devise a rapid and completely in vitro method to generate DNA templates for cell-free systems, bypassing the need for DNA template generation and amplification from living cells. This in vitro approach is significantly quicker than current characterization methods and is amenable to high-throughput techniques, providing a valuable tool for rapidly prototyping libraries of DNA regulatory elements for synthetic biology.
AU  - Chappell,J
AU  - Jensen,K
AU  - Freemont,PS
DO  - nar/gkt052
EP  - 3481
PY  - 2013///
SN  - 0305-1048
SP  - 3471
TI  - Validation of an entirely in vitro approach for rapid prototyping of DNA regulatory elements for synthetic biology
T2  - Nucleic Acids Research
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt052
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000318062600061&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/69622
VL  - 41
ER  -
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