Creating is Understanding: Synthetic Biology Masters Complexity

Overview

Conference Overview

Most engineered systems in biology are inspired by natural systems. Many achievements in synthetic biology that we have witnessed in the past decade, directly or indirectly, resulted from studies that were carried out in the context of basic/fundamental biology, the purposes of which were not engineering but understanding. A few examples are the natural regulatory response of the cell to its environment inspired the development of synthetic regulatory circuits, the understanding of cellular networks led the way to the optimisation of host strain for bioproduction and the CRISPR-Cas immunity system of bacteria and archaea opened new possibilities to reroute cell programs for new purposes.

Our workshop fosters the trust that creating is understanding. We have prepared a programme with four themes that are geared toward basic research while being at the forefront of synthetic biology. We start by asking how engineering can be used as an interpretive framework to biology, we then probe how biology can be interfaced with the non living (e.g. electronic devices, software), we next explore how synthetic biology can be used to reconstruct cellular systems (minimal, genome, and consortia) and we close by questioning how other biology is possible through engineering.

Session Topics

• Engineering as an interpretative frame for biology
• Interfacing biology with our software and hardware
• Engineering for understanding
• Other biology is possible

The related EMBO Practical Course: Synthetic Biology in Action: Bridging Natural/Non-Natural will take place 15 – 22 Sep 2019

Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Ron Weiss

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

USA

Luis Serrano

Centre for Genomic Regulation

Spain

Speakers

Cecília M. Arraiano

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Portugal

Anke Becker

LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology

Germany

Robert Bradley

Imperial College London

UK

Jason Chin

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

UK

Justin Michael Crocker

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Víctor de Lorenzo

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología

Spain

Angela DePace

Harvard Medical School

USA

Barbara di Ventura

University of Freiburg

Germany

Tobias Erb

Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Germany

Jean-Loup Faulon

Micalis Institute

France

Mark Isalan

Imperial College London

UK

Didier Mazel

Institut Pasteur

France

Kiran Patil

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

David Riglar

Imperial College London

UK

Floyd Romesberg

Synthorx, Inc.

USA

Jörg Schumacher

Schumacher Jorg Jörg Schumacher Imperial College London, Department of Life Sciences

UK

Jörg Stelling

ETH Zürich

Switzerland

Gilles Truan

Institut National des Sciences Appliquées

France

Scientific Organisers

Anke Becker

LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology

Germany

Justin Michael Crocker

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Víctor de Lorenzo

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología

Spain

Jean-Loup Faulon

Micalis Institute

France

Conference Organisers

Lea Hohmann

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Programme