Description:
Do you want to know the science behind Golden Rice which aims to solve the hidden hunger in developing countries? Have you noticed that there are more and more animal-free poultry and meat products when you do your grocery? Have you ever heard of CAR-T immunotherapy which could save millions of lives suffering from cancer? Can you imagine that tobacco plants are engineered to produce vaccines against Ebora virus? Do you know that scientists have already generated bioluminescent plants just like plants on Pandora in the movie Avatar?
Yes! Synthetic biology does the magic to improve the quality of our lives and tackle global challenges. The newly opened synthetic biology course series will cover this emerging area of applying engineering principles to biological systems. We will also have guest speakers who have hands-on experiences in synthetic biology, from whom you may also see your future career trajectory. You will get familiar with the basic “LEGO bricks” of synthetic biology. More than that, we expect wild, crazy ideas coming from YOU to build your own creative “LEGO” solving real world problems using synthetic biology tools. Is that all? Of course not! You will have the opportunity to team up with students from different backgrounds (chemistry, engineering, computer science…) for the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, which is a worldwide synthetic biology competition aiming at undergraduate students.
Topics:
Introduction to synthetic biology
iGEM and team up for this competition!
Synthetic chassis; Biological modules; Cloning techniques
Translational/post-translational regulation; Protein-protein interaction
DNA/mRNA/Protein delivery method
Genome editing
Metabolic engineering
Pharmaceutical application of Synthetic Biology
Date & Time: Sep. 15 Friday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Synthetic biology of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in yeast
Jianing Han, PhD candidate, Cornell University
(This lecture will introduce how they engineer yeast as a factory to produce valuable natural products.)
Date & Time: Sep. 18 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Designing and Engineering cell encapsulation biomaterials for type 1 diabetes (T1D) management
Daqian Gao, Research Associate, Yale University
(This lecture will show the important application of biomaterial engineering in healthcare industry)
Date & Time: Sep. 25 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Plant Volatiles: from pathway discovery to metabolic engineering
Xing-Qi (David) Huang, Research Associate, Purdue University
(Follow Dr. Huang to understand how to decode genetic code controlling the scent of flowers!)
Date & Time: Oct. 2 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Enhancing Nutritional Quality of Algae and Crop Plants through Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology
Mohammad Yazdani, Research Associate, Cornell University
(Dr. Yazdani will introduce the efforts to make super crops with enhanced vitamins)
Date & Time: Oct. 23 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Antibody engineering and production
Adeela Ali, PhD candidate, Emory University
Date & Time: Nov 6 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Plant synthetic biology
Lauren Alexandra Owens, PhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Date & Time: Nov. 20 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Health beneficial synthetic product: Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMO)
Jason Zhang, co-founder, Layer Origin Nutrition
(Dr. Zhang is a food scientist who switched his career from academia as an Assistant Professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln to a co-founder of a startup company. He will tell us how synthetic biology provide us the health beneficial probiotic HMO)
Date & Time: Nov 27 Monday, 9:20 am-10:10 am
Topic: Cancer Therapy Using Engineered CAR-T cells
Kory Wells, PhD candidate, Emory University