In this section

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

@article{Beal:2018:10.1371/journal.pone.0199432,
author = {Beal, J and Haddock-Angelli, T and Baldwin, G and Gershater, M and Dwijayanti, A and Storch, M and de, Mora K and Lizarazo, M and Rettberg, R},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0199432},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
title = {Quantification of bacterial fluorescence using independent calibrants},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199432},
volume = {13},
year = {2018}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Fluorescent reporters are commonly used to quantify activities or properties of both natural and engineered cells. Fluorescence is still typically reported only in arbitrary or normalized units, however, rather than in units defined using an independent calibrant, which is problematic for scientific reproducibility and even more so when it comes to effective engineering. In this paper, we report an interlaboratory study showing that simple, low-cost unit calibration protocols can remedy this situation, producing comparable units and dramatic improvements in precision over both arbitrary and normalized units. Participants at 92 institutions around the world measured fluorescence from E. coli transformed with three engineered test plasmids, plus positive and negative controls, using simple, low-cost unit calibration protocols designed for use with a plate reader and/or flow cytometer. In addition to providing comparable units, use of an independent calibrant allows quantitative use of positive and negative controls to identify likely instances of protocol failure. The use of independent calibrants thus allows order of magnitude improvements in precision, narrowing the 95% confidence interval of measurements in our study up to 600-fold compared to normalized units.
AU  - Beal,J
AU  - Haddock-Angelli,T
AU  - Baldwin,G
AU  - Gershater,M
AU  - Dwijayanti,A
AU  - Storch,M
AU  - de,Mora K
AU  - Lizarazo,M
AU  - Rettberg,R
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0199432
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1932-6203
TI  - Quantification of bacterial fluorescence using independent calibrants
T2  - PLoS ONE
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199432
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000435802500091&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/69038
VL  - 13
ER  -