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to Heavensoon
DNA
Factory Plans To Open Within 6 Months Good
news for all you aspiring Craig Venters out
there. Before the end of the year, synthetic
biologists will have a stocked factory of DNA
building blocks with which to remix microbe
life forms – one that will provide
standardized, reliable components for the most
creative of life sciences. Best of all? It’s
free. As we previously reported, the
International Open Facility Advancing
Biotechnology (BIOFAB) is a project to produce
thousands of standardized genetic “parts”
for researchers to use in the pioneering work
of synthetic biology. Started with a seed
grant from the National Science Foundation
(NSF), BIOFAB is the world’s very first
biological design-build facility. They will be
providing bioparts to researchers gratis to
speed along national research into new drugs,
biofuels, chemicals, you name it – all the
promising frontiers of synthetic biology. And
they should be open for business within 6
months. So what exactly is a synthetic biology
“part”? Good question – that was exactly
the topic of the project’s first human
practices report. The short answer is that
biological parts are small snippets of DNA
with basic, well-understood functions (e.g.
the production of a certain protein). Building
a microbe from scratch is no easy task,
especially if you have to identify and
characterize all of these building blocks
yourself. That’s exactly what synthetic
biologists have been doing – it costs
millions of dollars and takes years of
legwork.