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Notes, thoughts, and news on synthetic biology by Christina Agapakis.
Category: environment
Changing our energy infrastructure from one that contributes to climate change to one that is renewable and sustainable poses enormous challenges technically, politically, socially, and economically. There isn't going to be a single solution, but a combination of technological changes,...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 2:13 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: design
Synthetic biologists work on designing living cells, but engineered bacteria don't usually come up when you think of "designer" things. This year however, a synthetic biology design is up for a Brit Insurance Design of the Year award, up against...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 8:42 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: iGEM
It's been a few weeks since the iGEM jamboree, a whirlwind, completely exhausting weekend of student synthetic biology projects. This tweet from Robin Sloan from the #igem2010 stream is a pretty good way to sum up the weekend: .bbpBox987719207489536...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 3:32 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: iGEM
iGEM students are nothing if not creative, fun, and super nerdy. Here is a taste of some of the awesome videos being made by this year's crop, enjoy! Cambridge, with a catchy song about new techniques for joining pieces of...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 10:42 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: design
There's a neat article in the Guardian today about designing new foods with genetic engineering and biotechnology. Food, science, and design are intertwined from how we grow our food to how we eat it, from microwavable dinners to three-star molecular...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 2:31 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: bacteria
This year's Cambridge iGEM team has made a tiny, wireless lightbulb filled with bioluminescent bacteria! There are two main ways of engineering luminescence in E. coli (I assume these are E. coli, correct me if I'm wrong!). One is to...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 8:19 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astrobiology
Life transforms environments, creating ecosystems where there was once only rocks. The evolution of photosynthetic bacteria billions of years ago created the atmosphere we have today, paving the way for the evolution of larger, oxygen-breathing organisms. We humans obviously...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 11:49 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: plants
Sometimes among all of the tedious protocols and mundane inconclusive data, I forget that I'm doing something amazing and incredibly powerful. Almost all my experiments require altering a living organism to do my bidding--to hold onto and replicate a piece...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 11:22 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: DNA
A recent survey of 3,000 people worldwide found what many have known all along--that Legos are the best toy ever made. For synthetic biologists, this doesn't come as much of a surprise--Legos are at the heart of the concepts underlying...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 10:21 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: iGEM
It turns out that my wonderful iGEM students, besides being brilliant scientists, are also excellent, hilarious actors. Please enjoy their Jersey Shore inspired video about molecular cloning:...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 4:20 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
