Synthetic Biology Conference 2.0 – video excerpt
The Second International Conference on Synthetic Biology (SB2.0) took place on May 20-22, 2006, at the University of California, Berkeley. The conference brought together a diverse group of...
View ArticleNCBI BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
BLAST finds regions of similarity between biological sequences. The program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches. BLAST...
View ArticleSynthetic Biology Conference 3.0, 2007
The Synthetic Biology Conference for 2007 (aka: SB3.0) was held in Zurich; download the conference proceedings. Many of the talks are available for viewing online. Video: Welcome to SB 3.0, by Sven...
View Article7th Annual International Symposium Addressed the Engineering through Systems...
2008 SYMPOSIUM Systems Biology and Engineering Sunday, April 20 and Monday, April 21 2008 7th Annual International Symposium Addressed the Engineering through Systems Biology The Institute for Systems...
View ArticleSynthetic Biology Conference 4.0 (2008) Agenda
The Synthetic Biology Conference for 2008 is in Hong Kong. The agenda can be found here: Synthetic Biology Conference 4.0 Agenda
View ArticleWord on the Street @ SB 4.0 – Day 1
Word on the street from Synthetic Biology 4.0.. take a word or leave a word. DIY Bio such as Garage Hacking Biobricks – it’s not for grandma or the kids or even the DIY hackers. It’s … More→
View ArticleWord on the Street @ Synthetic Biology 4.0 – Day 2
Word on the street from Synthetic Biology 4.0.. take a word or leave a word. Tom Knight mentions it will be another 10 years before an untrained hobbyist can order a BioBrick off the shelf, stir … More→
View ArticleWord on the Street @ Synthetic Biology 4.0 – Day 3
Word on the street from Synthetic Biology 4.0.. take a word or leave a word. Venture capitalists and private investors are very interested in synthetic biology. Significant buzz in the Bay Area...
View Article“SynBioSS: The Synthetic Biology Modeling Suite”
SynBioSS (Synthetic Biology Software Suite) is a suite of software for the modeling and simulation of synthetic genetic constructs. SynBioSS utilizes the registry of standard biological parts, a...
View ArticleWitch Hazel? Triclosan? Horsetail Extract? Camellia Sinesis Leaf?
Breeze by the cosmetics section of the department store next time. There is a 1+ billion-dollar market being bought and sold right under, and on top of, everyone’s noses, using mostly experimental...
View ArticleSkunkworks Bioengineering — Prerequisites to Success?
“Despite all the support and money evident in the projects, there is absolutely no reason this work could not be done in a garage. And all of the parts for these projects are now available from … More→
View ArticleAverage Americans are Scared of “Synthetic Biology”
Yes, believe it, non-synthetic biologists have a poor, even fearful, associations when synthetic biology is described to them: Q: How do the descriptions of these technologies [synthetic biology] make...
View ArticleWe Make the News Headlines: “Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home”
As a nice holiday surprise for me this week, my project (Melaminometer) & a team member (Meredith L. Patterson) made it into Associated Press science news: “Amateurs are trying genetic engineering...
View ArticleMake some simple biology lab tools
Sometimes biology lab tools are really simple, and ridiculously obvious (i.e., a petri dish?). Yet most of the general public form the idea that biology, chemistry, or even nanotechnology, is...
View ArticleDIY Digital Microfluidics for Automating Biology Protocols (sub-microliter...
Systems biologists and synthetic biologists spend a large amount of time moving small liquids from one vial to another. I would say it makes up the majority of their work day, even in a technologically...
View ArticleHVPS for Systems Biology: A Low Cost, High Voltage Power Supply with...
I have designed this high voltage, low current power supply for various experiments in systems & synthetic biology. I have cleaned up the design and I am placing the schematic and board layout...
View ArticlePlaying with the $100K Robots for Biology Automation
The Tecan Genesis Workstation 200: It’s an industrial benchtop robot for liquid handling with multiple arms for tray handling and pipetting. The robot’s operations are complex, so an integrated...
View ArticleComments Re: Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Talk on Synthetic Biology:...
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a recent talk on Synthetic Biology, Patents, and Open Source. This talk is now available via the web; link below. I’ve written some...
View Article3G Cellphone as Biotech Tool: “Cellular Phone Enabled Non-Invasive Tissue...
A recent paper in PLoS ONE describes a diagnostic system which uses a common 3G cellphone with bluetooth to assist in point-of-care measurement of tissues, from tissue samples previously taken, with...
View Article“Centrifuge the column(s) at ≥10,000×g (13,000 rpm) for 1 minute, then...
A basic equation of physics, for those out there building their own centrifuges: What are RPM, RCF, and g force and how do I convert between them? The magnitude of the radial force generated in a … More→
View ArticleSoftware for Biohackers
Some open source software collections of biology interest are noted here. I’ll update this list as time goes on. If you would like to have your project listed too, leave a comment with all the fields …...
View ArticlePerl Bio-Robotics module, Robotics.pm and Robotics::Tecan
FYI for Bioperl developers: I am developing a module for communication with biology robotics, as discussed recently on #bioperl, and I invite your comments. Currently this module talks to a Tecan...
View ArticleDon’t Always Trust Open Source Software. Why Trust Open Source Biology?
The software you are happily using may be.. unnecessarily brittle. Recently I’ve been developing a little bit of high-level software using open source libraries. Sometimes it amazes me that open...
View ArticleWhen a needle is not a needle: inside & outside needle diameter variations
In various discussions in biology circles there’s often the lament that “biology is hard” (which I agree) and from the biologists there are continued remarks that repeating a protocol in a slightly...
View ArticleBattery-powered, Pocket-sized PCR Thermocycler
A few years ago, some bright students at Texas A&M improved upon the most basic tool for manipulating microbiology: a thermocycler. Thermocyclers are typically large tabletop instruments which...
View Article“ELISA Redux” 96-Well Plate Cryptography Challenge
The publication GEN is running a contest, with $1,500 plus fancy biotechnology equipment as the prize, for the first one who can decode the cryptographic message hidden in this 96-well plate: Register...
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