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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@inbook{Lai:2018:10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_25,
author = {Lai, H-E and Moore, S and Polizzi, K and Freemont, P},
doi = {10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_25},
pages = {429--444},
title = {EcoFlex: A Multifunctional MoClo Kit for E. coli Synthetic Biology.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_25},
year = {2018}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CHAP
AB  - Development of advanced synthetic biology tools is always in demand since they act as a platform technology to enable rapid prototyping of biological constructs in a high-throughput manner. EcoFlex is a modular cloning (MoClo) kit for Escherichia coli and is based on the Golden Gate principles, whereby Type IIS restriction enzymes (BsaI, BsmBI, BpiI) are used to construct modular genetic elements (biological parts) in a bottom-up approach. Here, we describe a collection of plasmids that stores various biological parts including promoters, RBSs, terminators, ORFs, and destination vectors, each encoding compatible overhangs allowing hierarchical assembly into single transcription units or a full-length polycistronic operon or biosynthetic pathway. A secondary module cloning site is also available for pathway optimization, in order to limit library size if necessary. Here, we show the utility of EcoFlex using the violacein biosynthesis pathway as an example.
AU  - Lai,H-E
AU  - Moore,S
AU  - Polizzi,K
AU  - Freemont,P
DO  - 10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_25
EP  - 444
PY  - 2018///
SP  - 429
TI  - EcoFlex: A Multifunctional MoClo Kit for E. coli Synthetic Biology.
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_25
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29754244
ER  -

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