(from Pui-Wing Tam of the Wall Street Journal)

Silicon Valley has sprouted numerous "hacker spaces" in recent years, where software geeks get together to program and build new Web creations. Now there's a hangout for "biohackers," too.

To encourage new collaborative projects that promote the safe and constructive growth of synthetic biology, the SynBERC Scholars of Practice Program welcomes outstanding scholars and practitioners at all career stages and from a broad range of fields to work with us in addressing interdisciplinary challenges in advancing synthetic biology.

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 investigators Drew Endy and Vivek Mutalik represented the SynBERC BIOFAB: International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology at the BIO Pacific Rim Summit on December 12, 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The very specialized workshop on advancements in synthetic biology was open to all attendees of the large annual meeting focused on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy.

The Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) is a multi-institution research effort to lay the foundation for the emerging field of synthetic biology. SynBERC’s vision is to catalyze biology as an engineering discipline by developing the foundational understanding and technologies to allow researchers to design and build standardized, integrated biological systems to accomplish many particular tasks.

What is a SynBERC Affiliated Investigator?

Prairie View A&M University and the SynBERC Student Leadership Council hosted the second Synthetic Biology Symposium on Friday, November 5, 2010, at the Willie A. Templeton Sr. Memorial Student Center on the Prairie View A&M University campus.

Synthetic biology is an exciting new field of research that combines classic molecular biology and innovative bioengineering techniques. It focuses on the design and construction of new biological entities, such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells, and on the redesign of existing biological systems.

The Yeast Synthetic Biology Workshop took place on Saturday October 16, 2010 at UC San Francisco's Genentech Hall. Generously supported by Life Technologies, this one-day workshop was in response to a growing recognition that yeast is re-emerging as an important workhorse system in synthetic biology research-development-production processes, in particular for chemical production and biofuels applications.

The DSM Biotechnology Center (DBC) is a leading biotechnology campus located in the ancient city of Delft, The Netherlands, with over 400 employees who are committed to world class research for a broad range of business areas like pharma, food and industrial biotechnology.