Synthetic Biology Education

Update: Check out this NatureEdCast interview of Dr. Natalie Kuldell, the creator of BioBuilder and a synthetic biology researcher and instructor at MIT.

Synthetic biology is a surprisingly young area of research. The BioBrick standard was invented as recent as 2003, and the first chemically synthesized genome (that of the virus ΦX174) was completed in the same year. The field has moved very quickly since then. On the parts-based side of synthetic biology, the Registry of Standard Biological Parts and the iGEM competition were created. In 2010, 128 teams of undergraduates from six continents competed in the iGEM competition, each contributing a number of new parts to the Registry. The same year, Craig Venter and his team pushed chemical genome synthesis even further, managing to synthesize a bacterial genome that was transplanted into an empty cell and made active.

Given the rapid pace of research, many synthetic biologists have initiated efforts to engage both the scientific community and the general public. This post is all about educational efforts in the synthetic biology community.

One educational opportunity in which I have participated is iGEM, which is short for the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition. As I mentioned above, iGEM is a synthetic biology competition for teams of undergraduates from around the world. The teams each pick a new application for synthetic biology and build a collection of BioBrick parts to apply to the problem. Although prizes are awarded to the top teams, the competition has a spirit of collaboration as well. Ultimately, all of the BioBrick parts designed by the teams are submitted to the Registry of Standard Biology Parts to be shared among all participants. The picture in this post shows all of the teams that competed at iGEM 2010—quite a crowd!

The Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) is part of the effort within the scientific community to spread synthetic biology education. It aims to make genomics education and research opportunities available to undergraduates and also sponsors a summer synthetic biology workshop. The workshops are for pairs of interdisciplinary faculty from colleges and universities around the USA and serve to introduce interested faculty members to the field of synthetic biology research.

There are also a number of projects out there aimed at a more general audience. This coming May, Northwestern University is hosting a symposium called Biology by Design. The symposium will include a public forum where the general public can interact with active researchers in the field of synthetic biology. There will also be a number of presentations from prominent figures in the field.

The Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) sponsors a number of educational programs, primarily targeted toward students. One of their sponsored projects is BioBuilder, which is a website filled with interactive and animated educational resources. Though it is somewhat geared toward students, the animations are an excellent introduction to the mechanics of engineering biology for any audience. There are also resources for teachers and walkthroughs for a number of laboratory activities to introduce students to synthetic biology. In addition, the site has a synthetic biology glossary—a great tool for decifering my occasional bit of jargon!

The animations are centered around a child named Device Dude and a synthetic biologist named Systems Sally. Each animation covers a different topic, and they are divided between the categories science, engineering, technology, or community. There is a "community" animation about iGEM here, which serves as a nice introduction to the competition and the underlying spirit. BioBuilder's animations are easy to watch and do a great job of explaining complicated topics that are difficult to understand. Sometimes you just have to see or hear something for it to really click.

This post was a bit different from my previous ones, and I hope you enjoyed the change and thought it worthwhile. Science education is crucially important and ongoing. The welfare of our future society depends strongly on our dedication to quality science education, both in building an able and passionate scientific workforce and in giving the public the tools they need to keep up with the rapidly changing world of science. I also think that teaching people about science is both fun and rewarding, which is why I decided to start this blog in the first place.

Image Credit: iGEM and Justin Knight (via Flickr)

References and Further Reading:

BioBuilder.

Department of Biology, Davidson College. Home Page for the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT).

iGEM: Synthetic Biology Based on Standard Parts.

Knight, T. Idempotent Vector Design for Standard Assembly of Biobricks. MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; MIT Synthetic Biology Working Group (2003).

Northwestern University. Biology by Design.

Smith, H. O. et al. Generating a Synthetic Genome by Whole Genome Assembly: ΦX174 Bacteriophage from Synthetic Oligonucleotides. PNAS 100(26), 15440–15445 (2003).

SynBERC.