[img_assist|nid=4601|title=|desc=In previous research, Rice synthetic biologist Jeff Tabor and colleagues created colonies of light-sensitive bacteria that exhibited complex patterns when exposed to images, like this portrait of Albert Einstein.

On May 3, 2011 the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of George Church to its membership in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Dr. Church is a leader in the fields of computational genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, bio-engineering, and technology development.

The National Academy of Sciences is an honorific society whose members are distinguished scholars in science and engineering. The NAS provides independent advice to the United States government on scientific and technological issues.

SynBERC Deputy Director Wendell Lim and cell biologists at UCSF have received $15.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to set up one of two new National Centers for Systems Biology, to study how cells respond to their environment – an emerging field of research that could revolutionize medicine by creating “smart cells” to deliver medications and other therapeutics more effectively.

SynBERC researcher George Church was awarded the 2011 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science for innovative and creative contributions to genomic science, including the development of DNA sequencing technologies, as well as for his subsequent efforts to promote personal genomics and synthetic biology. The Institute noted his pioneering founding of the Personal Genome Project, which promises to spawn a new era of individualized medicine in which drug treatments and other therapies can be optimized by custom-matching them with a person's unique genetic makeup.

The SynBERC Inter-Institutional Seminar Exchange (SIISE) Program allows students and post-docs at all stages of their research to visit partner SynBERC institutions and share their work. Whether it's a practice for a proposal or defense, these seminars are a great way to disseminate the latest ideas in synthetic biology and to receive feedback from the greater community. Applications will be considered on a case by case basis but funding will nominally not exceed $400 for travel expenses. To apply today, fill out the application below and return to: synberc-slc@googlegroups.com.

Funding guidelines
The mission of the SynBERC SLC is to enrich the student and postdoc experience within SynBERC while providing a student voice to the NSF and faculty on the functioning of the Center. Through the SLC Service Grant Program, we aim to promote and fund student-initiated and student-run projects that further these goals.

What kind of projects are you looking for? How do you decide what to fund?

Awards!!

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Graduate students Jeffrey Dietrich, Howard Chou, and Eric Steen from the Keasling lab, as well as Angela Won from the Lim lab, participated in the 2009 Idea to IPO class offered by the Center for BioEntrepreneurship at the University of California San Francisco.

This is a test of the SynBERC related nodes system.

Scientiae Histoiria RomaeAdrian Van Allen, a multimedia designer and exhibit developer at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, the designer of Ars Synthetica and an upcoming, revamped SynBERC home page, has won the prestigious Rome Prize in design to study and work in Rome.