SynBERC is pleased to make its Principles of Synthetic Biology course freely available to the synthetic biology community. The lectures and slides are available here:

Principles of Synthetic Biology lecture videos and slides
(see lecture listing below to find a specific topic)

This bi-coastal course, first taught at UC Berkeley and MIT by Adam Arkin and Ron Weiss in Fall 2010, has four main objectives:

Terry Johnson, UC Berkeley BioengineeringUC Berkeley's top-ranked Bioengineering Department announced the creation of a Synthetic Biology concentration in Bioengineering. The concentration represents one of the few US degree specializations in synthetic biology.

A web of Federal laws and guidelines regulates the engineering of biology. With authors Rocco Casagrande and Jennifer Byers of Gryphon Scientific, SynBERC Human Practices researcher Kenneth Oye has helped assemble a practical guide to synthetic biology regulations for academic and industry researchers that explains how the various regulations pertain to our daily research activities.

President Obama's Bioethics Commission was convened to examine the safety and ethical issues around the emerging field of synthetic biology. The Commission offered its assessment to President Obama on December 16, 2010. Among the Commission's eighteen key recommendations:

UC Berkeley students are among the many undergraduate researchers who are pioneering the field of synthetic biology. In this video, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism follows Jennifer Brophy for the summer through the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition — better known as iGEM — for a closer look at the iGEM experience.

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 New York Times is running a long piece on one team's efforts in the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition at MIT:

Imagine!

• Replacing nonrenewable energy sources with solar-powered bacteria
• Curing diseases with engineered microbes
• Producing new biochemicals and materials in cells

These are some of the goals of synthetic biology, a new field that seeks to design and build novel biological systems to accomplish specific tasks.