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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

@article{James:2020:10.1089/vbz.2019.2606,
author = {James, SL and Marshall, JM and Christophides, GK and Okumu, FO and Nolan, T},
doi = {10.1089/vbz.2019.2606},
journal = {Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases},
pages = {237--251},
title = {Toward the definition of efficacy and safety criteria for advancing gene drive-modified mosquitoes to field testing},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2019.2606},
volume = {20},
year = {2020}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Mosquitoes containing gene drive systems are being developed as complementary tools to prevent transmission of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. As with any new tool, decision makers and other stakeholders will need to balance risks (safety) and benefits (efficacy) when considering the rationale for testing and deploying gene drive-modified mosquito products. Developers will benefit from standards for judging whether an investigational gene drive product meets acceptability criteria for advancing to field trials. Such standards may be formalized as preferred product characteristics and target product profiles, which describe the desired attributes of the product category and of a particular product, respectively. This report summarizes discussions from two scientific workshops aimed at identifying efficacy and safety characteristics that must be minimally met for an investigational gene drive-modified mosquito product to be deemed viable to move from contained testing to field release and the data that will be needed to support an application for first field release.
AU  - James,SL
AU  - Marshall,JM
AU  - Christophides,GK
AU  - Okumu,FO
AU  - Nolan,T
DO  - 10.1089/vbz.2019.2606
EP  - 251
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 1530-3667
SP  - 237
TI  - Toward the definition of efficacy and safety criteria for advancing gene drive-modified mosquitoes to field testing
T2  - Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2019.2606
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32155390
UR  - https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vbz.2019.2606
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/77643
VL  - 20
ER  -