Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology has become an approach to understand and to manipulate biological systems in bacteria and in yeast for numerous applications. This extremely challenging goal typically follows the process of Design-Build-Test-Learn. Nature is not capable of providing the 'ideal' microbe for our applications - we need to design and to engineer new organisms that can perform the functions that we want. In our group, we will be using synthetic biology and microfluidics to produce microbes that are useful for energy and health applications.

Design: To decide which hosts and DNA parts to use to produce the predictable response that we want.

Build: To assemble the different combinations of genes using DNA assembly methods.

Test: To perform biological assays on the engineered microbes.

Learn: Does the "new" microbe perform the function or produce the output that we desire?