Your December update from the Synthetic Biology IRC
Welcome to the December 2020 issue of the Synthetic Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre Newsletter - a round-up of news, events and notices from across the initiative.
OpenPlant and the SynBio IRC are pleased to announce the eleven winning teams from this year's Biomaker Challenge. Learn more about the teams and their projects.
Recordings from our November No-Code Programming for Biology workshops are now available online. Follow along to get started with your own custom devices.
All SynBio IRC Events, including Cafe Synthetique, Cell-Free Lunches and the SynBio Forum have been suspended for the foreseeable future. We apologise for any inconvenience, but hope to continue serving our community via online initiatives and synthetic biology news.
The No-Code Programming for Biology programme is designed to introduce biologists, or other scientists with little formal programming training, to the basics of Biomaking, including use of Arduino-based microcontrollers, sensors, displays, and XOD visual programming.
We have developed a variety of online training resources to help researchers learn these new skills including:
Beginner’s Guide: a step-by-step guide to using the Biomaker Beginner’s Kit
In response to the Covid-19 crisis we have started a work programme that explores designs for ultra low-cost microreactors for temperature control of biological reactions. These underpin modern molecular diagnostics and synthetic biology approaches that are important for health, agriculture, education and research.
The Biomaker Expert group have developed a number of designs for low-cost open source reactors. You can follow their progress on the Biomaker website or on Hackster.
Biomaker Challenge
Biomaker Challenge is a five-month programme challenging interdisciplinary teams to (i) build low-cost sensors and instruments for biology or (ii) develop some biological resource or outreach project.
Following our briefing event on 16th November, eleven teams have been selected to receive funding of £1000, plus access to Biomaker expansion kits, programmable touch screens and TotemMaker kits, to get them kick-started with their projects.
You can learn more about the Biomaker Challenge on the Biomaker website, and find out what this year's teams will be up to in our latest news article. You can follow along with this year's Biomaker projects, as well as browse previous project on the Biomaker Hackster Hub.
