(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's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) provide important advice for the thrusts and the testbeds. These advisors review progress reports, proposals for future work, and the overall scientific goals of the project. The SAB gives input to the SynBERC Leadership Team on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the SynBERC scientific program. The SAB has recently been expanded to include experts who can help us address emerging needs in the areas of industry and the Practices thrust.

[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.

Thursday, June 23 - Friday, June 24, 2011

Chris Voigt, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, will join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in July. He will be an associate professor of biological engineering and co-director of a center for synthetic biology [details forthcoming]. Voigt serves as the leader of the Devices thrust and Industry Testbed within SynBERC.

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.

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Dow Agrosciences Summer R&D Intern Program (posted 10-21-2011)